Russian competition law and economy

The Law Firm "YUST" took part in the discussion of topical matters of competition law within the framework of the event organized by the Federal Antimonopoly Service together with the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

On March 6 of 2014, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS of Russia) together with the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISL of the RAS), with the participation of the Federal Chamber of Advocates of the Russian Federation (FCA of Russia) held an open presentation-discussion dedicated to the publishing of this year’s first issue of the electronic scientific magazine “Russian competition law and economy”.

The following persons took part in the discussion: Academician Andrey Lisitsyn-Svetlanov, Director of the ISL of the RAS, Anatoly Golomolzin and Alexander Kinev, Deputy Chiefs of the FAS of Russia, Yury Pilipenko, Vice-President of the FCA of Russia, Andrey Tenishev, Head of the Anti-Cartel Department of the FAS of Russia, Alexey Sushkevich, editor-in-chief of the “Russian competition law and economy” magazine, Head of the Analytical Department of the FAS of Russia, Igor Bashlakov-Nikolaev, Head of the Moscow Region Department of the FAS of Russia, Nikolay Mikhaylov, First Deputy Director of the ISL of the RAS, Sergey Maksimov, Deputy Chief of the Legal Department of the FAS of Russia, Alexandra Nesterenko, President of the United Corporate Lawyers (UCL).

The following themes were the main subjects of the discussion:

• Draft law “On changes to the Federal Law “On competition protection” and certain other legal acts”;
• Regulation of the circulation of intellectual activity results by antitrust legislation;
• Draft federal law concerning the expansion of the institution of protection from dishonest competition;
• Amendments to the Federal Law “On the procedure of foreign investments into economic companies of strategic significance for the ensuring of the defense of the country and the security of the State”.

Academician Andrey Lisitsyn-Svetlanov, Director of the ISL of the RAS, pointed out in his speech that the “Russian competition law and economy” magazine established its reputation as the most distinguished scientific venue on discussion of the most topical matters in the sphere of competition law, and expressed his wish to further the cooperation of the ISL of the RAS for the purpose of elaboration of solutions of the questions that arise in the sphere of law-making and application of law.

After the welcoming speech, the participants engaged in the discussion on the agenda items.

Alexander Kinev, Deputy Chief of the FAS of Russia, and Andrey Tenishev, Chief of the Anti-Cartel Department of the FAS of Russia, discussed the possibility to expand the powers of the antitrust authorities, including endowing the latter with investigation powers, and suggested discussing the matter during the next meeting of experts. Those present noted the arguability of such initiative and pointed out the need to deeply consider the matter and to evaluate the regulatory effect of such institution.

Yury Pilipenko, the Vice-President of the FCA of Russia, called attention to the problems connected with the antimonopoly regulation of the legal services market and pointed out the differences in the approaches employed by courts and the antimonopoly authorities.

Anatoly Golomolzin, Deputy Chief of the FAS of Russia, spoke on the history of antitrust legislation in Russia, commented on the question by Evgeny Zhilin, Managing Partner of the Law Firm "YUST", concerning the perspectives of adoption of the Antimonopoly Code and expressed his hope that the cooperation of the FAS of Russia with the ISL of the RAS of Russia and the FCA of Russia on the venue of the magazine will stimulate discussion of new ideas in the sphere of competition law.

Anna Kotova-Smolenskaya, Partner of the Law Firm "YUST", spoke on the theme concerning the arguable matter of the suggested amendments to the competition protection law, which eliminate the current limitations on the application of antitrust laws to intellectual activity results. In her report, Anna pointed out that the specialists of the Law Firm "YUST" had thoroughly studied the foreign practice of application of antimonopoly legislation to intellectual rights, in particular – the approaches elaborated by the courts and regulators in the USA and the European Union. The results of said research were made in the form of an article, which is expected to be published in the next issue of the “Russian competition law and economy” magazine.

Sergey Maksimov, Deputy Chief of Legal Department of the FAS of Russia, acted as the moderator of the event. Summing up the meeting, he suggested outlining the themes for discussion in the course of the future round tables. In consideration of the opinions of those present, the following was included among those:

• Problems of antimonopoly regulation of intellectual activity results,
• Problems of exaction of losses for breaches of the antimonopoly laws;
• The «Fourth antimonopoly package».