OREANDA-NEWS. On February 27, 2008 the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) held an extended session of its Collegium. The keynote speech "On important enforcement issues in 2007 and objectives for 2008" was delivered by the Head of FAS Russia Igor Artemyev, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia. 

Opening the session, Igor Artemyev stated that modernization of the antimonopoly legislation forced FAS Russia to face dozen new tasks in 2007. "We were given powerful tools to implement efficient competition policy, - emphasized the Head of the Antimonopoly Service, - Therefore we have had to adopt to the new conditions and at the same time develop sustainable enforcement practice".

The Head of FAS Russia presented statistics on the violations of the antimonopoly legislation, the state procurement legislation and the antimonopoly legislation, revealed in 2007, as well as imposed and paid fines.

Igor Artemyev pointed out that in general 2007 was characterized by the following trends:

"The workload of both regional offices and the central office of FAS Russia increased considerably on all categories of antimonopoly cases";

"FAS Russia is successfully developing the practice of detecting antimonopoly violations related to unlawful rendering of state aid";

"The authorities have started agreeing state and municipal aid with the regional offices of FAS Russia";

"The number of processed petitions stabilized (2006 - 6077, 2007 - 6097), while the number of processed notifications increased dramatically (from 7777 in 2006 to 15117 in 2007 due to sharply increased notifications of agreements by financial organizations)";
"The amount of paid fined increased by 50%".

According to the Head of the Antimonopoly Service, special attention must be paid to the FAS Russia's experience of applying "turnover" penalties for antimonopoly violations, introduced to the Code of Administrative Violations (CoAV) in May 2007. For instance, only under Article 14.31 CoAV (abusing dominant market position), the overall amount of fines imposed in 2007 reached 302 million 402 000 Rubles.

At the same time, acknowledged Igor Artemyev, FAS Russia revealed individual cases when antimonopoly bodies used different techniques for calculating the fines or relieved the violators from administrative liability without reasonable grounds. Addressing the session of the Collegium, Igor Artemyev asked that in 2008 his colleagues endeavour to take due consideration of the outcome of the first year when the new sanctions were in force and intensify the work in the filed. "The adaptation period is over for both the antimonopoly authorities and economic entities; the time has come to rigorously apply these sanctions, completely eliminating any difference in their application".

In addition, the Head of FAS Russia suggested correcting the technique for calculating "turnover fines" within the statutory limit (from 1 to 15 % of the annual proceeds on the market where the violation occurred). Since the new standards of the Code of Administrative Violations came into force, FAS Russia has been calculating fines using the technique based on the lower limit of sanctions. In May 2008 the procedure will be amended in such a way that average fines will double. Igor Artemyev is convinced that it will not only suppress antimonopoly violations but also will prevent this practice, will is the main FAS Russia's objective for 2008.

Igor Artemyev also named the following priorities of the FAS Russia's work:

"Reinforcing control over anticompetitive actions of the authorities and state aid rendering (in Russia over 50% of antimonopoly violations are still committed by state authorities and local self-government bodies)";

"Developing new, modern and efficient law on natural monopolies";
"Intensifying cartel investigations jointly with the law enforcement bodies".

Also, Igor Artemyev informed the session that in May 2008, in accordance with the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition", for the first time FAS Russia will present to the Government of the Russian Federation its annual report of the level of competition in Russia.