The fourth antimonopoly package has been adopted

On 5 October 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Federal Law № 275-FL "On Amendments to the Federal Law" On Protection of Competition "and some legislative acts of the Russian Federation" (hereinafter - "the fourth antimonopoly package").
The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS Russia) developed the fourth antimonopoly package. From 2013 till the date of its adoption, the package was crafted several times based on the proposals of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Federal Tariff Service (FTS), the Ministry of Justice, independent experts and representatives of business. As a result, the law, according to Igor Artemyev, the head of FAS Russia, become the most liberal one of all the packages aimed at supporting business.
The fourth antimonopoly package amends the Federal Law of 26 July, 2006 № 135-FZ "On Protection of Competition", the Russian Federation Code of Administrative Offences, the Federal Law of 17 August, 1995 № 147-FZ "On natural monopolies" and other regulations. These changes improve institutions of antimonopoly regulation and public functions of FAS Russia, as well as reduce administrative constraints for business.

The fourth Antimonopoly Package provides, in particular, the following changes:

• the abolition of the register of economic entities having a share in a particular product market more than 35%, which means that the antimonopoly body has to prove the dominant position in each case. Abolition of the registry will reduce the administrative burdens of the included companies. At the same time the abolition of the registry will not reduce the level of responsibility of the dominant companies in the market for anti-trust violations, since a dominant position will be established on a mandatory basis as part of every antitrust case on violation of Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition;
• the Russian Government has a possibility to establish a non-discriminatory access rules for dominants in some markets, if the competition authority frequently determined abuse of dominant position. Previously, non-discriminatory access rules applied only to the subjects of natural monopolies - for them the rules determined a number of conditions of the contract with the company's contractors, including a list of products and their prices, the procedure for determining consumers, etc. According to the fourth antimonopoly package, the Government of the Russian Federation will be able to take action to specify such rules, and not only against monopolies, but also others with a market share of more than 70%;
• improvement of administrative procedure to address cases on violation of the antimonopoly legislation, including, among other things, the publication by the Commission competition authority of the pre-trial detention as a result of the investigation, fixing kinds of evidence, the criteria of their relevance and admissibility;
• regulation of the legal status of the Appeals Board in the structure of the FAS Russia, which will review, based on the complaints, decisions and determination of the territorial bodies of FAS Russia, if they violate the uniformity of administrative practice. The Act provides that the decision and determination of the territorial antimonopoly authority may be appealed to the collegial bodies within one month from the date of their issuance. The review should be carried out within a period not exceeding two months from the date of receipt of the complaint to FAS Russia. After reviewing the appeal on a decision or order of the territorial competition authority, the collegial body of FAS Russia has the right to dismiss the appeal; cancel or change the decision; make a new decision. The decision of the collegial body, adopted as a result of review of the decision of the territorial competition authority, shall take effect from the date of publication of the decision on the site of FAS Russia, and can be appealed in court;
• a significant expansion of the practice of cautions and warnings on the inadmissibility of violation of antitrust laws. Thus, in accordance with the fourth antimonopoly package, FAS Russia will issue a warning not only to the actions of the dominant imposing unfavorable contract conditions and unjustified refusal to sign the agreement, but also to action to create discriminatory conditions and unjustified establishment of different prices. Competition authorities will be able to send warnings to officials of economic entities, officials of state bodies and local authorities, if the actions of local authorities may lead to a breach of the law;
• Law introduces amendments to Article 14.9 of the Administrative Code, providing no alternative penalty, which is disqualification in the second violation by officials of antimonopoly legislation. The law, on the one hand, has a mechanism for rapid elimination of antitrust violations by officials (proposed to extend the Institute for the prevention of violations of Article 15 of the Law on Protection of Competition), and on another - suggests a mechanism tightening administrative charges against officials, who repeatedly violate the antitrust laws. In the case of repeated violation of the official will be disqualified, although before the courts often decided to fine, while the maximum amount of the fine amounted to RUB 30 thousand.

• A new chapter of the Law on Protection of Competition regulates in detail unfair competition, replacing the existing Article 14. For example, the new chapter will consist of eight articles that specify different types of unfair competition, namely: discredit; misrepresentation; incorrect comparison; misuse and the acquisition of intellectual property; mixing of products on the market; illegal acquisition, use, disclosure of information that constitutes commercial or other secret protected by law. The list of unfair competition is not closed.

• reduction of the bases of unscheduled inspections of small businesses. Checks at the request of legal entities and citizens will be carried out only after consultation with prosecutors. The exceptions will be a test carried out to detect cartels. In addition, all small and medium companies with annual income less than RUB 400 million will be exempt from all tests of the antimonopoly authority.
• classification of collusions between the organizers of the auction (customers) and the participants are being specified, which will be classified as a violation of anti-trust requirements for trading (Art. 17 of the Law on Protection of Competition). However, it does not mean lack of accountability for the conclusion of a prohibited agreement.

The amendments will enter into force 90 days after official publication and will take effect in early January 2016, with the exception of Article 4 of the Act, which comes into effect immediately.
The full text of the law is available on the official web portal of legal information.