OREANDA-NEWS. April 21, 2010. Preparing the so-called "third antimonopoly package", FAS Russia took into account may proposals and comments from business, said the Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) Igor Artemyev at the conference "Developing competition and removing administrative barriers: problems and solutions", organized by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The Head of FAS Russia told the conference about the novelties of the so-called "third antimonopoly package of laws".

Igor Artemyev pointed out that violation of Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (abusing market dominance) is punishable by a fine from 1% to 15% of the company's turnover in the year preceding the violation. Overall in 2009 FAS Russia and regional bodies initiated more than 2500 cases under this Article. "We plan to stop imposing "turnover" fines for the violations that do not restrict competition. So "turnover" fines will not be used in about half of such cases. We propose to introduce fixed fines, for instance, 1 million Rubles, for the violations that have not resulted in restriction of competition. By this we remove some of the risks for the business", emphasized Igor Artemyev.

The Head of FAS Russia also told about introducing amendments to Article 178 of the Criminal Code. "Concerted actions should not be considered a criminal offence. Let this severe punishment remains only for collusions", said Mr. Artemyev. "Vertical agreements" will also not fall under Article 178.

Igor Artemyev reminded that FAS Russia had undertaken an obligation to not transfer to the law enforcement bodies the materials of antimonopoly cases to initiate criminal proceedings. "We will transfer the materials only after our decision comes into force by a court ruling. However, there is a threat that investigators can themselves initiate criminal proceedings for cartel collusions, by-passing FAS. This situation requires clarification in the body of the law", stated Mr. Artemyev.

The "third antimonopoly package" is designed to liberalize the norms of the antimonopoly law, particularly, with regard to "vertical agreements". "We propose to prohibit only two types of vertical agreements and allow agency agreements", explained Mr. Artemyev.

The Head of FAS Russia reminded that determining monopolistically high price the antimonopoly authority is obligated to use not only the "cost plus method" but also the method of comparable markets. Mr. Artemyev clarified that the price formed at exchange trading cannot be monopolistically high.

Also the "third antimonopoly package" provides for a FAS Russia's obligation to assess global indicators when determining monopolistically high price.

The concept of concerted actions will be redefined: qualifying criteria will be added to its definition, which will distinguish parallel conduct, caused by common conditions for all market participants, and concerted actions.

The amendments will separate the concepts of agreements and concerted actions to two different Article of the Law.

The Head of FAS Russia told the conference that the period for appeals against the FAS Russia's decisions will remain the same - three months (there was a proposal to shorten it to one month). "This was done to give businesses a possibility to properly prepare for challenging our position at Courts", explained Mr. Artemyev.

Principles of pricing formulae will also be reflected in the draft Law. "Using different formulas for determining a fair, not a monopolistic price creates some sort of a safe harbor for businesses. Within the price range determined under the formulae, the companies do not face accusations in fixing monopolistically high prices", thinks Mr. Artemyev.

Amendments to the law provide for introduction of the institute of warning. "In the instances when a violation is not serious, and is a an early stage, nobody has suffered yet and it is not punishable by a "turnover" fine, we will first send letters to the companies about their actions that contravene the antimonopoly law. Therefore, the number of cases processed by the antimonopoly body should go down", explained The Head of FAS Russia.

In conclusion Mr. Artemyev informed the conference about an internal administrative reform in FAS Russia. "We are moving away from "heavy-handed", quantity reporting system to a more quality-based. This year we set struggle against cartel collusions as a priority of our work. Accordingly, collusion cases will score more than all other cases. It will decrease the number of cases initiated by the regional offices of FAS Russia", is convinced Igor Artemyev.