The Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia Maxim Shaskolsky in the course of the VI International Scientific and Practical Conference "Protection of Competition amidst Global Economic and Social Changesocial changes" told about the work of the Service in 2022.
With the participation of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Government of the Russian Federation has legalized parallel imports. This mechanism is important for the competitive environment, as it helps reduce the market power of the right holder, saturate the market, reduce or contain prices, create new jobs, and provide new opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses.
In the agricultural sector, the Service has succeeded in providing agricultural producers with mineral fertilizers in the necessary volume and at acceptable prices. For this purpose, FAS Russia, in cooperation with other authorities, has developed a standard sales policy which takes into account the procedure for setting fertilizer prices, their indexation, and other factors affecting the final cost of products. These trade and sales policies have been approved by major fertilizer producers, and the Russian FAS monitors compliance with them.
In addition, a number of temporary measures have been implemented in 2022 to reduce the administrative burden on business. These include:
- the control of economic concentration transactions has been simplified. If the total value of the company's assets is from 800 million rubles to 2 billion rubles, the transaction may be made without the approval of the FAS, but with subsequent notification of the service;
- the procedure for granting preferences to entrepreneurs has changed. Now, instead of coordinating with the Federal Antimonopoly Service, in some cases the authorities only need to notify the Service of the provision of preferences;
- the size of payments under contracts for installation and operation of advertising constructions was reduced, and also the term of validity of contracts and permits was prolonged for one year without the bidding.
In conclusion, Maxim Shaskolsky pointed out that any legislative changes must have a methodological basis. FAS Russia in its work relies on scientific research, examines the best international practices and pays great attention to the development of educational processes in the areas of the service. Thanks to the cooperation between FAS Russia and leading universities in the country today there are already more than 30 chairs and centers in the field of antimonopoly policy and competition law.
In 2017, a basic chair of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia also appeared at St. Petersburg State University - now it is the Institute for Development of Competition and Antitrust Regulation.
Source: FAS
