Global Competition Law is primarly a practitioner's guide presenting the most salient aspects of the major competition laws country by country, giving an overview of their structure and most charasteristic elements.
Global Competition Law also provides insight into possible future developments in the field.

Global Competition Law

An exemption from liability for agreements or concerted practices that restrict competition was adopted in April 2007 which amended the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. Amendments to the Administrative Code were eventually made to encourage persons or entities to participate in the leniency program. The amendments clarified the list of persons or entities that may enjoy t …

Leniency

  The FAS can impose a variety of measures to bring infringements to an end, such as issuing binding instructions to undertakings, filing court claims or imposing administrative sanctions. In addition, under Section 10(5) as amended by the FAP in October 2015, if an abuse of dominance is established in a FAS decision against an undertaking holding a market share of more than 70% the Government may enact rules for non-discriminatory access to the goods produced or sold by that undertaking (a similar procedure already existed for undertakings with a legal monopoly). The rules may also impose mandatory selling of the concerned goods through tenders.

Cease and desist orders

Engaging in restrictive agreements and concerted actions, abuses of dominant position or unfair competition is penalized with fines (payable by entities and individual officers). Under Section 14.32 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, fines payable by legal entities ranged from 1% to 15% of the violator's revenue from the sale of the relevant goods and services in the market where the violation had taken place. With regard to the abuse of a dominant position, a differentiation was introduced in 2012 between fixed administrative fines and turnover fines, depending on the consequences of the breach. Amendments effective from 28 April 2017 have established a differentiation between several types of offenses, according to the seriousness of the infringement. Specifically, the lower limit of the fines for cartel infringements has been raised to 3% of the undertaking's revenue (now 3%-15%) while the upper limit for vertical agreements has been decreased to 5% (now 1%-5%).

Mitigating and aggravating factors must be taken into account when calculating the amount of fine to be imposed. Fines must be paid within 30 days of the FAS decision coming into force.

Fines

An exemption from liability for agreements or concerted practices that restrict competition was adopted in April 2007 which amended the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. Amendments to the Administrative Code were eventually made to encourage persons or entities to participate in the leniency program. The amendments clarified the list of persons or entities that may enjoy the leniency program as well as other conditions, such as the information that needs to be disclosed to the FAS.

Under Section 14.32 of the Code, any person who voluntarily informs the FAS of an illegal agreement or a coordinated practice it has been a party to may gain full immunity against administrative liability if all of the following conditions are met:

- at the time, the FAS did not have any information about the violation;

- the person refused to continue taking part in such an agreement or a coordinated practice;

- the information and evidence supplied enabled the FAS to prove the offense.

Leniency is also available in the case of criminal offenses for the first undertaking to come forward, but some kind of reparation must be awarded to the victim, either by way of damages or any other remedy.

Before the FAP, only the first applicant could benefit from the leniency programme. Since January 2016, the second and third applicants may be granted a reduced fine, i.e. the minimum fine incurred for the infringement in question.

Criminal liability is applied only for cartels and repeated abuse of a dominant position. Section 178 of the Russian Criminal Code establishes criminal liability for company executives who are responsible for restriction, limitation or elimination of competition through price-fixing, maintaining monopolistically high or low prices, market allocation, setting barriers to entry into the market or squeezing other participants out of the market, depending on the effects of the infringement. Where the infringement caused major damage (RUB 10 million - US$ 165,000) or generated high profits (RUB 50 million - US$ 823,000), a fine of between RUB 300,000 and RUB 500,000 (US$ 5,000 - 8,200) or imprisonment of up to three years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions for up to one year is incurred. Where the infringement has caused particularly significant harm (RUB 30 million - US$ 495,000) or generated particularly large profits (RUB 250 million - US$ 4.1 million), a fine of up to RUB 1 million (US$ 16,500) or imprisonment of up to six years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions for up to three years is incurred.

Global Competition Law

1205. Leniency

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Les notions juridiques connexes

1205. Leniency

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise