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RATING ENFORCEMENT 2016
RUSSIA'S FEDERAL ANTIMONOPOLY
SERVICE
Tuesday, 12 July 2016 (2 weeks ago)
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Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) remained extremely active in 2015. The authority handed down
300 cartel decisions, all accompanied with fines, and launched 3,059 abuse of dominance investigations.
These numbers don’t significantly vary from those featured in previous editions of Rating Enforcement, except
that now the FAS has more money to match its large volume of cases.
STAR RATING:
PERFORMANCE:
HEAD OF AGENCY: Igor Artemiev
In 2015, the FAS’s budget was €67.4 million, almost double the
budget in 2014. “This change reflects the government’s efforts to
further strengthen the competition enforcement in Russia,” a lawyer
says.
The increase in the authority’s financial resources also led to a boost
in the number of new hires at the agency: more than 700 non
administrative staff joined in 2015 to focus on competition
enforcement, compared to a gain of about 500 people the year
before. According to a source, the growth could partially be explained
by the transfer of about half of the staff from the Federal Tariff
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Service, which was abolished last year, to the authority. The FAS
took over several of the former tariff service’s responsibilities, which
include creating and maintaining a registry of natural monopolies, as
well as tariff regulation.
Observers say the upturns in budget and staff demonstrate growth in
the FAS’s functionality, which has frequently been criticised by
practitioners in the past. The authority has a history of being
understaffed compared to other Russian governmental bodies and
many of its foreign peers. One lawyer also says the authority’s
budget in previous years was too low to ensure quality enforcement,
while another notes that the agency’s level of professionalism and
the sophistication of its case handlers could be improved. Out of the
2,133 nonadministrative staffers who focus on competition
enforcement, 423 – or about 20 per cent – have worked at least five
years in the private sector. From 2014 to 2015, the agency’s attrition
rate was about 20 per cent, which is much higher than the rates of
other European competition authorities.
Although the FAS’s caseload continues to expand, one observer
commented that the budget was not enlarged to increase the
agency’s number of enforcement actions. “FAS already has too
many, and its head continues to promise to reduce their number,” a
lawyer says. Currently, the FAS’s high volume of activity bogs staff
down with less meaningful cases, observers say.
But it’s important to keep in mind that many smaller cases are
generated by the authority’s 85 regional offices, while the central
office takes on the bigger matters. Observers also comment on the
growing sophistication of the agency’s anticartel unit. The FAS
continues to investigate major oil companies that are believed to
have inflated petrol prices through irregular, highfrequency trading.
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Additionally, in February 2015 the authority became the first
competition agency to open a formal investigation into Google’s
Android operating system. In September, the FAS announced that
the tech behemoth was found to have abused its power over pre
installed applications on Android smartphones and tablets.
Despite these successes, observers have commented that the office
could enhance the quality of its economic analysis and become more
willing to use independent economics experts on certain matters.
One lawyer says that some cases that the FAS brings seem to be
inspired more by political motives rather than strong economic
analysis, which could be a result of the authority being under the
purview of the executive branch. He says the agency has stated over
and over again that it will improve its economic analysis, but so far
there has been no visible evidence that it is doing so.
However, observers praise the agency for its transparency compared
to other government offices in Russia. One lawyer says: “In my
experience, it is one of the best Russian government authorities in
terms of transparency, openness, access to officers, friendliness,
compliance with statutory deadlines and absence of corruption.”
The FAS has recently begun to follow the lead of the European
Commission and other competition agencies by publishing decisions
in antitrust cases, as well as issuing guidelines explaining the
authority’s processes in investigating cases. A new amendment also
mandates that the FAS provide a statement of objections to the party
it is charging with anticompetitive behaviour.
Those who deal with the authority frequently view Igor Artemiev, who
has an unlimited term as head of the FAS, positively. But observers
still say the agency has room for improvement. One lawyer says
Artemiev seems to be saying all the right things but is struggling to
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• 28 May 2015 – roundtable “Competition enforcement in today’s
economy” in the framework of the V International Legal Forum in St
Petersburg.
• 8 June 2015 – working meeting with Russian President Vladimir
Putin (topic of the meeting – activities of the FAS).
• 22 September 2015 – the 43rd session of the Interstate Council for
Antimonopoly Policy (participants – representatives of the
competition authorities of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, as well as the Eurasian
Economic Commission and the noncommercial partnership
“Competition Support in the CIS countries).
• 16 October 2015 – annual conference “Antimonopoly Regulation in
Russia” (topics – reform of antimonopoly regulation, fifth
antimonopoly package, reducing the cost of state companies, the
participation of small and mediumsized businesses in procurement).
• 13 November 2015 – meeting with Frederic Jenny, the chairman of
the OECD Competition Committee (topic – the new powers of the
FAS Russia and the fourth antimonopoly package).
• 16 November 2015 – Igor Artemiev and Alexander Ivanov, the
acting head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, signed an
agreement in Moscow on information exchange.
• 30 November 2015 – forum “Open power against corruption” was
held at the House of the Government of the Moscow Region.
• 1 December 2015 – the first meeting of the Scientific Council of the
Russian Academy of Sciences on the protection of competition
issues (topic – the powers and tasks of the Russian competition
authority).
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have not been achieved or there is a negative dynamic, an analysis
is carried out of the reasons for such deviations for the purpose of
adopting administrative decisions.
The FAS presents an annual report on the authority’s achievements
to the government. Moreover, performance evaluation is carried out
by the FAS board.
Meanwhile, a system of public assessment has been set up. The
FAS and its regional offices have expert and public advisory boards
that unite both representatives of public organisations and ordinary
citizens. An independent organisation carries out an poll with citizens
each year, including telephone interviews, regarding their satisfaction
with the FAS’s performance (eg, professionalism of the antimonopoly
authority’s staff, efficiency and provision of information by the FAS).
Since 2011, the FAS’s performance has been assessed by the
Association of Corporate Lawyers (ACL), where members of the ACL
estimate the transparency of the FAS’s performance and allow for a
constructive open dialogue with the business community and
professional legal community.
Ensuring stability
To ensure stability and institutional memory among junior personnel,
the FAS undertakes several measures, including:
• workshops for employees accepted to the civil service for the first
time – the purpose of this training is to familiarise employees with the
structure of the antimonopoly authority, the legal status of civil
servants in general, the antimonopoly law and its application;
• mentoring programme – in the first two months of the probation
period, a mentor is appointed to a new employee to share experience