Competition (antitrust) cases

What is happening

The company has received a FAS request about its prices, its distribution agreements or its bidding in tenders. The deadline is short, the volume is large, and even at this stage the wording of the reply shapes what the inquiry turns into.

A competitor or a counterparty has complained: one thinks your prices are excessive, another sees copying in your packaging design, a third objects to contract terms it says were forced on it. FAS issues a warning and sets a deadline for compliance.

The hardest situation is a suspected bid-rigging arrangement. Matching IP addresses, identical file properties in bids, and staff shared between bidders are treated as evidence, and the company needs to explain how it actually works before the commission reaches its decision.

What the law says

• The principal act is Federal Law No. 135-FZ of 26 July 2006 "On the Protection of Competition" (the Competition Law). It prohibits abuse of a dominant position, unfair competition, anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices.
• For some breaches, including unfair competition, FAS first issues a warning. If the warning is complied with on time, no case is opened and the company is not held administratively liable for that breach.
• Cases are heard by a commission of the competition authority. The company may inspect the file, submit evidence and explanations and, once it has received the commission's findings on the facts, file objections to them.
• The commission's decision and order may be challenged before the FAS collegial body or in the commercial court under the Commercial Procedure Code (APK); a court challenge must be brought within three months.
• For competition breaches the Code of Administrative Offences provides for fines calculated on turnover in the relevant market, as well as liability for officers. Administrative proceedings are opened on the basis of the commission's decision.
• The Competition Law encourages internal competition compliance, and a voluntary report of an agreement exempts the company from administrative liability if the conditions of the Code of Administrative Offences are met.

What we do

• We prepare replies to FAS requests: we establish what genuinely falls within the request and how to present information that is a trade secret.
• We analyse the market and your position in it: the product market boundaries, market share and whether there is dominance at all. The authority's case is often weakest here.
• We assess a warning: whether it is justified, whether it can be complied with and whether it is worth challenging.
• We represent the company at commission hearings and prepare explanations, economic analysis and objections to the findings on the facts.
• We challenge decisions and orders before the FAS collegial body and in the commercial court.
• We defend the company and its officers in administrative proceedings that follow a competition case.
• We set up competition compliance: a policy, review of contracts and pricing, and rules for dealing with competitors, including at industry events.

What we will need from you

• The request, warning or ruling opening the case: everything received from FAS, with the dates of receipt.
• Contracts, commercial policies, price lists and correspondence about the disputed episode.
• Market information: main competitors, market shares, sales channels and how prices are set.
• For tender cases, the tenders the company took part in, who prepared the bids and where, and your relationship with the other bidders.
• Documents on any existing compliance programme.
• Powers of attorney to represent the company and its officers.