OREANDA-NEWS. September 12, 2014. Over 40 colleagues representing foreign competition authorities from different continents arrived to take part in “Competition Day in Russia” organized by the Federal Antimonopoly Service. They are separated by seas and oceans but they know how important is cooperation between the antimonopoly authorities in their work, especially since the strategy of big business quite often has a global nature.

“At the international level FAS event touches the interests of more than one country”, pointed out the Chairman of Competition Protection Commission of the Republic of Armenia, Artak Shaboyan. “It allows learning about antimonopoly matters in various countries and their work experience”.

In Armenia, for instance, considerable attention is paid to cooperation with other authorities. “Problems exposed by the antimonopoly authority typically have deeper reasons that are in the competence of different bodies. And often they are consequences rather than reasons”, explained Artak Shaboyan. Competition advocacy also plays an important role. “Armenian Commission endeavors to raise the level of knowledge on competition law in the country on the basis of cooperation with other government bodies and through enhancing awareness of the public and business about advantages and benefits of competition”.

This is at the national level. At the supranational level – competition authority also carries out a robust policy for developing cooperation with the authorities of other countries. In particular, significant efforts are undertaken for Armenia to join the Eurasian Economic Union.

The President of Turkey’s Competition Authority, Nurettin Kaldirimci, pointed out that antimonopoly bodies must always take into account how rapidly and significantly the world where we live is changing, and make changes to the law accordingly.

Turkey, for instance, plans to adopt a draft law at the end of 2014. In Egypt, as reported by the Head of the Competition Authority, Mona El Garf, the new law is already passed. It enables Egypt’s antimonopoly body to initiate cases independently and suppress numerous violations. She explained that “Egyptian markets are quite highly concentrated”. On 4th September 2014 a draft Law, devised by FAS in line with the best international practices, also was approved.

The President of Turkey’s Competition Authority also believes that it is not only necessary to expose and suppress violations by also find out “why the rules that we set were violated, are there objective reasons for this”.

Following his colleagues, Nurettin Kaldirimci also emphasized the importance of cooperating with other authorities: “Agency’s independence does not mean that it can work separately from others”.

A similar idea was expressed by the Chairman of India’s Competition Commission, Ashok Chawla: “No country is an isolated island. We must work like companies – together. Especially against cartels”. As Ashok Chawla pointed out, the company’s size does not matter in such cases.

“Year after year the geography of competition authorities taking part in the events organized by the Federal Antimonopoly Service is expanding”, emphasized Deputy Head of FAS, Stats-Secretary Andrey Tsarikovskiy. “This year Egypt takes part in Competition Day for the first time. Hopefully, next year other countries will join us”.