The Institute at Eurasian Economic Week

 On September 25, 2019, in Bishkek, on the sidelines of the Eurasian Week forum, a meeting of the heads of the antitrust authorities of the EAEU member states and the Minister of Competition and Antimonopoly Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) was held in the "5+1" format.

Alexey Ivanov spoke about the results of the research project “Analysis of the legislation and law enforcement practice of the Eurasian Economic Union member states on the issues of upholding and issues of liberation for violating antitrust laws, reviewing international experience”, which was conducted by the HSE-Skolkovo Institute for Law and Development in 2018-2019. In his speech, he presented the main recommendations that were given by the Eurasian Economic Commission on the development of Union law on the issue of bringing to account violators of the general rules of competition in cross-border markets. In addition, a draft Order of exemption from liability for violations of the general rules of competition was presented, which secures the basic mechanisms and procedures of this process and is an analogue of the leniency program that exists in most leading foreign jurisdictions.

 

Another issue on the agenda of the event was the discussion of antitrust regulation in the digital age and its significance for the EAEU. In his speech, Alexey Ivanov spoke about the draft Report on new approaches to protecting competition in the digital economy, prepared by the BRICS Antimonopoly Centre. The meeting participants discussed such new phenomena in the economy as the use of algorithms for price collusion, the network effects arising from the use of digital platforms, and their significance for enhancing the market power of high-tech companies. In addition, the speech dealt with the opportunities for platform or ecosystem owners to abuse their monopoly position by setting high barriers to entry into the market, or to manipulate other market participants by denying access to a platform. Ivanov added that the authors of the report prepared a set of recommendations for the antitrust authorities of the BRICS countries on the development of competition law and policy to adapt them to the new challenges of the digital economy, which can also be used by the competition authorities of the EAEU member states and the Eurasian Commission.