MART made a comment on the antimonopoly legislation. What he explained

The Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade presented a scientific and practical commentary to the Law “On Combating Monopolistic Activities and Developing Competition”. The publication of more than 300 pages collected the practice of applying antimonopoly legislation, explanations and approaches formed by the agency over 10 years of work. This was told to journalists on September 7 by representatives of the MRI, the correspondent of the Minsk-Novosti agency reports.

The photo is illustrative in nature

Why do I need a comment

As noted by First Deputy Minister of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade Natalia Vasilevskaya, the need for such a publication is associated with practical issues that arise in business and government agencies when applying antimonopoly legislation.

- Today, business and government agencies can only be based on those practical aspects of investigations or on our explanations and comments. We tried to collect them in one book, written in a fairly simple and accessible language, understandable for law enforcement, the expert said.

The commentary is over 300 pages long. It discusses the main provisions of the law - from the conceptual apparatus to the final articles. Special attention is paid to the dominant position, commodity markets, fair and unfair competition, concerted actions, economic concentration and the definition of a group of persons.

Not just for lawyers

The authors of the comment were MART employees who are directly involved in the development of legislation, consider appeals, prepare explanations, conduct antimonopoly investigations and analyze commodity markets.

Antitrust law is not the simplest branch of law. Indeed, many questions are constantly coming to us from business entities, said Ilona Garenkova, Head of the Department of Antimonopoly Regulation and Competition Methodology at MART.

According to her, one of the main tasks was to make antimonopoly tools more accessible and understandable for business. In addition, the publication should help the employees of the department apply the legislation uniformly. Not only lawyers and MART specialists will be able to use the comment, but also analysts, representatives of state bodies, as well as educational institutions that train specialists in the field of antitrust law.

- Our main goal is not to detect a violation and fine someone, the main goal is to prevent this violation, so that competition works in the balance, said I. Garenkova.

Most of the cases are about unfair competition

The head of the legal department of MART, Ekaterina Disko, said that today the largest number of investigations are in the sphere of unfair competition. At the same time, business entities do not always clearly understand what they complain about and what antitrust laws can be applied in a particular situation.

Among the important areas of MART, the speaker highlighted the investigation of concerted actions, including cartels. Such violations can affect the results of public procurement, budget spending and prices.

- Concerted actions, as a rule, do not lead to a decrease in price, but lead to its growth. This is due, among other things, to the division of the commodity market by territory, she explained.

Another important direction in MART is the investigations related to the dominant position. At the same time, specialists of the department face situations when market participants consider the very fact of being or not being in the relevant register as a sufficient basis for concluding that there is or is not a dominant position.

Circulation - only 115 copies

The circulation of the scientific and practical commentary amounted to 115 copies. To sell the publication in March was not originally planned. The book is intended to be distributed among the territorial bodies of the department, state bodies with which MART interacts in this area, as well as educational institutions training specialists in antitrust law. If required, the publication can release an additional circulation. At the same time, Vasilevskaya stressed that the comment cannot be considered as a normative document.

- This is not a regulatory document, this is an explanation, she added. Legislation continues to change, as does the activities of commodity market participants. In particular, new issues arise in connection with the development of digital markets and platforms. The content of the commentary may therefore be further supplemented in the light of past practice.