News

21.06.2022

Eurasian Intergovernmental Council approved Commission's annual report on state of competition in transboundary markets for 2021

The annual report of the Eurasian Economic Commission on the state of competition in transboundary markets for 2021 was approved by Disposition of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council on June 21.
The document contains information on investigations and implementing the "soft regulation" mechanism, as well as includes plans of the Commission’s Antitrust Unit for the short-term.
"With advances in digital markets and rising competition, questions arise concerning special aspects of its assessment. It is safe to say that last year we did the groundwork for laying out approaches to assessing the state of competition in digital markets and the procedure for determining the transboundary nature of such markets. We have prepared a review that contains practical approaches to determining the product and geographical boundaries of digital markets, indicators used to calculate market volumes and shares of economic entities. Particular attention will be paid to extending the format of interaction with the business community", commented Arman Shakkaliev, Minister in charge of Competition and Antitrust Regulation.

According to the report, in the past year, the EEC considered 27 applications on violations of competition rules in transboundary markets, conducted 12 investigations, and considered 10 cases on violations of competition rules.
Within the "soft regulation" mechanism, the Commission addressed 12 draft proposals aimed at settling disputes between economic entities at the initial stage, without conducting investigations and imposing penalties. The report’s separate section contains information on the work carried out in 2021 to improve the EAEU competition law and antitrust regulation.

Besides, the report includes operating results on the state regulation of prices for certain types of goods, as well as information on measures aimed at improving the efficiency of competition policy, in particular competition advocacy and international cooperation.

It bears reminding that in 2021, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conducted an expert review of legal regulation and competition policy in the Eurasian Economic Union. This is the first instance that the OECD has reviewed the Commission's activities. The review contains an analysis of the EAEU competition law, procedural acts, competition policy and law enforcement in the EAEU, as well as analysis of the efficiency of current competition regulation institutions, international cooperation and competition advocacy.