OREANDA-NEWS. December 08, 2008. In the framework of the TAIEX project (Technical Assistance Information Exchange Instrument) of the European Commission and in order to exchange experience in the field of competition regulation in the aviation market the consultations on "State and Antimonopoly regulation in the air transportation market" were held in the UK' Competition Commission, UK' Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the UK' Civil Aviation Authority, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Besides, during the consultations the representatives of the Central Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service and representatives of the UK' competition authorities exchanged experience on implementation of "leniency program".

During the consultations on the regulation of the air transportation market, the following issues were discussed:

- the main features of state and antimonopoly regulation of the air transportation market according to the European standards as well as the UK' standards;

- the OFT' approach to airline mergers and cases;

- airport regulation and the role of the UK' Competition Commission in this activity;

- airport price regulation and investigation of the market under the British Airport Authority' regulation;

- investigations and economic analysis of the EU' air transportation market.

These consultations gave the FAS Russia the opportunity to study the best world practice on the most topical issues of the state and antimonopoly regulation of the air transportation sector and will allow using consolidated international experience when holding the join investigations in the air transportation market of the CIS member-states.

At the meetings devoted to the main aspects of the "leniency program" implementation, the participants focused their attention on the OFT' practice of implementation of the "leniency program" and the major methods of revealing cartels that OFT used.

The methods of collecting information from other state authorities, the ways of interaction with them, powers of the OFT on cartels disclosure, evaluation of the productivity and overall performance of the OFT, its efficiency on fighting against cartels were presented.

Taking into account the FAS Russia priorities in fighting against cartel collusions, these consultations are timely and useful from the point of view of increasing the FAS Russia' efficiency. It should be noted that the OFT has a huge experience in the cartel disclosure and "leniency program" implementation and studying of the OFT' experience will allow the FAS Russia implementing the best practices in own anti-cartels activity.

Following the results of these consultations in London, the representatives of the British and Russian competition authorities expressed the willingness to continue bilateral cooperation in the anti-cartels activity and agreed to continue the effective cooperation in the air transportation sector by means of further negotiations and exchange of necessary information on this issue.