OREANDA-NEWS. May 05, 2010. Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), appeared at the 58th annual spring session of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association, which took place in Washington, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia. 

Andrey Tsyganov spoke as a special session devoted to antimonopoly enforcement in BRIC countries. In his report Deputy Head of FAS Russia covered the latest developments in the antimonopoly law of the Russian Federation, anti-cartel efforts, importance of cooperation between competition authorities of BRIC countries and FAS Russia's priorities.

Leaders and high representatives of competition authorities of BRIC countries, who also spoke at the session, emphasized state-of-the-art organization of the first BRIC International Competition Conference, which took place on 1-3 September 2009 in Kazan, Russia. Participants focused on those approaches to important issues of antitrust enforcement that are common to all four BRIC countries. At the session there was a constructive and engaged exchange of opinions regarding further steps towards advancing quadruple cooperation, including the second BRIC Competition Conference in China in 2011.

 Andrey Tsyganov also had meetings with representatives of the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. The Parties signed the 2010 Action Plan for Cooperation in furtherance of the Memorandum of Understanding on Antimonopoly Cooperation (signed on 10th November 2009 in Washington between FAS Russia and the US DoJ and FTC).

In negotiations the Parties talked over a range of issues related to further advancement of bilateral cooperation between competition authorities of Russia and the USA.

The Parties discussed possible forms of cooperation regarding joint investigations, in particular, providing access to information, evidence and witness statements collected by the Parties in course of joint investigations. The Parties also discussed the need for active cooperation and experience exchange in the field of competition law and enforcement practice within the framework of OECD, ICN, APEC and other international organizations. In particular, the US were asked to support a FAS Russia's APEC project as a co-sponsor.

Reference:
It is planned to implement the project at the APEC Competition Policy and Law Group. The project will be focused on developing an information exchange mechanism for antimonopoly enforcement within APEC. To develop the mechanism in question, the Group will carry out comparative analysis of legislative, technical and administrative possibilities of each APEC economy for exchanging information on antimonopoly enforcement. For this purpose, the Group shall draft and then send a questionnaire to APEC economies and they analyze the answers. At the next stage, APEC economies will be classified according to their potential commitment and possibilities for exchanging certain types of information (not only confidential) on antimonopoly cases. This classification will enable to develop a mechanism for exchanging information between APEC economies with similar features.