OREANDA-NEWS. November 17, 2008. Dmitry Medevedev, the President of the Russian Federation, signed the Federal Law "On Introducing Amendments to the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition", adopted by the State Duma on 17th October 2008 and approved by the Federation Council on 27th October 2008, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

1) The amendments were devised to develop uniform practice of enforcement of Part 9 Article 35 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition". The original wording did not allow uniform interpretation of the law by financial organizations, which could fulfill its obligations on sending notifications about the reached agreements to the antimonopoly authority.

The law also expands the list of agreements that do not require notification to the antimonopoly authority. In particular, there will be no need to notify on the agreements for terminating or extending previous agreements as well as the agreements that changed previous agreements without altering their substantive provisions.

At the same time the law introduces a new criterion under which financial organizations will have to notify FAS Russia: the agreements for offering services to third parties.

Under the new law, notifications shall be sent to FAS Russia if the asset value of each of the financial organizations, that have reached an agreement, defined according to the balance sheet as of the closing date proceeding the date when the agreement was signed, exceeds the threshold set by the Government of the Russian Federation.

2) According to the amendments to Article 33 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition", the period for processing petitions is extended if a transaction must be approved under the Federal Law "Procedures for Foreign Investments in the Business Entities of Strategic importance for Russian National Defense and State Security", until the day of making decision regarding such a transaction in accordance with the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition".

The petition will be dismissed if preliminary approval of the transaction was not granted under the Federal Law "Procedures for Foreign Investments in the Business Entities of Strategic importance for Russian National Defense and State Security".

3) According to the new Law, lease contracts, gratuitous use agreements, property trust agreements, and other agreements transferring ownership and/or use rights for state or municipal property, which is not under the right of economic management (use and possession without disposal) or operating management, can be exercised without competitive tenders or auctions, for:

- transferring ceremonial buildings and constructions and other property of religious significance to religious organizations for gratis use;

- granting the rights for such property to state bodies, local self-government bodies as well as governmental extra-budgetary funds, and the Bank of Russia.

Lease contracts for the period no longer than 30 calendar days can also be signed without competitive bidding. Lease contracts cannot be concluded with the same person/ entity without tenders or auctions for the total period longer than 30 days during six consecutive months.