Plenary session "New Stage of Anti-Monopoly Policy: Presentation of the 5th Anti-Monopoly Package"

On April 10, 2018, the above-titled plenary session took place within the framework of the XIX April International Conference of the Higher School of Economics. 

 

In participation: Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) Igor Artemyev, Deputy Head of the FAS Sergei Puzyrevsky,

Director of the HSE-Skolkovo Institute for Law and Development Alexey Ivanov, Director of the Centre for

Monitoring the Legislation of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Irina Kotelevskaya, Head of the Intellectual Property Department of Kaspersky Labs, Nadezhda Kashchenko.

 

Igor Artemyev held the first official presentation of the Fifth Anti-Monopoly Package, which is entirely devoted to the regulation of the digital economy. At present, technologies that use "big data" are considered not material objects, but intellectual property, in relation to which immunity is established in the antimonopoly legislation. After the adoption of the new package, they will fall under antitrust regulation.

 

In addition, it introduces new concepts: "network effects", in which the economic entity can be recognised as dominant, regardless of market share; "Price algorithm", which uses price monitoring in the interests of a certain company; and other elements. It is important to note that digital platforms will be required to ensure non-discriminatory access to consumer data. In addition, the Fifth Package tightens the coordination of major transactions. For one, to deal with the merger of international concerns Bayer and Monsanto, the Centre for Technology Transfer was established at the behest of the Higher School of Economics.

 

In Russia, the need to adopt a "digital" antimonopoly package is even higher than in other jurisdictions, Alexey Ivanov is convinced, because in most countries of the world, antitrust legislation consists of 3-4 principles that the regulator and the court interpret in accordance with the moment. Regarding Russia the situation is essentially the opposite, in which there is a necessity to enter new bodies legislatively. As one of the developers of the Fifth Antimonopoly Package, Alexey Ivanov stressed that, "the working group has taken a most conservative position". "We studied the entire world's judicial practice and included in the package only those norms that have already been confirmed in the practice of other countries", he explained.

 

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