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08.10.2021 (Обновлено: 01.04.2022 12:05)

Arman Shakkaliev: "The EEC should be given extraterritorial powers in competition protection"

The supranational competition authority of the Eurasian Economic Union needs extraterritorial powers to counter new global challenges in the field of competition protection. This was stated by Arman Shakkaliev, Minister in charge of Competition and Antitrust Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission at the plenary session of the 7th Eurasian Antitrust Forum in Almaty (the Republic of Kazakhstan).

The Minister has noted that today the Union’s law lacks powers in relation to economic entities of third countries. 

"We want the national competition authorities to support our initiative in vesting the EEC with such powers. This conclusion also contains a review of competitive regulation in digital markets, recommended in May this year by the Commission’s Board to be used by the EAEU countries in identifying and suppressing anti-competitive behavior", the Minister noted.

Speaking about shaped plans, Arman Shakkaliev paid special attention to introducing the antimonopoly compliance institution into the Union’s law. According to the Head of the Commission's Competition Unit, the experience of Kazakhstan, which was the first to introduce the antimonopoly compliance institution into its legislation and successfully implements it today, is important in this issue. The EEC initiative is to develop antimonopoly compliance standards based on international ISO standards. The Minister has stressed that compliance should be made part of the common quality and risk management system in a company.

Using "soft regulation" tools was named by the Minister as a new trend in antitrust regulation in the EAEU transboundary markets. It bears reminding that this year a new similar tool was introduced into the Union’s law - a warning, the Commission’s act on the need to eliminate signs of violations of competition rules.

For reference

The annual Eurasian Antitrust Forum has been held in Kazakhstan since 2014. This year it will last two days from October 7 to October 8 in Almaty. The Forum is attended by heads and representatives of competition agencies of 7 countries and 6 international organizations in online and offline formats.

On the sidelines of the Forum, experts discuss new approaches to assessing the state of competition in commodity markets, the practice of conducting investigations and settling disputes between competitors, etc.