OREANDA-NEWS. April 20, 2012. A delegation of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) learned about organization and practice of suppressing violations of competition law in France, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.  

Their training took place at the General Directorate on Competition, Consumption and Fraud Repressions of the Ministry of Economics, Finances and Industry of the Republic of France and France’s Competition Authority under the Framework of documents on cooperation signed between government agencies.

Members of the delegation learned about functions of the government agencies as well as separation of authority between them, introduced by the law on economic modernization adopted in 2008.

At the General Directorate on Competition, French experts presented to the Russian delegation their experience of combating anticompetitive practices, in particular on the local markets, and participation of regional directorates in such activities, that are called Regional Directorates on Enterprises, Competition, Consumption, Labour and Employment and are subordinate to various government agencies, including the General Directorate on Competition.

The parties exchanged opinions on observing competitive conditions in state procurement and involvement of regional directorates in the process.

Participants of the training were interested in price monitoring exercised by the General Directorate on Competition and various indices used for this purpose, as well as questionnaire survey conducted by the General Directorate on Competition.

French representatives pointed out that along with protecting competition another equally important function of the General Directorate is protecting consumer rights, which is also reflected in the name of the agency.

In their turn, FAS representatives were interested in distribution of authority between the General Directorate on Competition of the Ministry of Economics and an independent body - France’s Competition Authority.

The Competition Authority is an independent body that makes decisions and imposes sanctions. The investigative and decision-making functions within the Competition Authority are also divided: the essence and the materials of a case are presented to the Collegium by General Rapporteur and then the Collegium makes a decision on the case.

Special discussions focused on the size of fines and on how France’s leniency programme is taken into account for imposing fines when a violator turns oneself in to the Competition Authority, admits one’s fault and submits information about other cartel participants to the Competition Authority.

Russian delegation was also interested in cooperation with other competition authorities in course of investigations, especially within the framework of the European Competition Network.

In course of the visit, FAS delegation had a meeting with the General Director on Competition of the Ministry of Economics, Nathalie Homobone, and Deputy General Rapporteur at the Competition Authority, Carol Champalone.

At the meetings, the heads of regional offices of FAS Russia expressed their gratitude for the useful information obtained in course of the visit, shared experience of their work, emphasized FAS aim to reach a new level of cooperation between experts and organize joint investigations. Russian delegation also invited French experts to take part in the workshops that are planned in Novosibirsk and Chelyabinsk.