The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) is a federal executive body that performs the functions of adopting regulatory legal acts and monitoring compliance with antimonopoly legislation, legislation in the field of activities of natural monopoly entities (in terms of the powers of the antimonopoly body established by law), advertising, monitoring the implementation of foreign investments in business entities that are of strategic importance for ensuring the country's defense and state security, as well as for control in the field of placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, provision of services for federal state needs (with the exception of the authority to control the placement of orders for supplies goods, performance of work, provision of services under the state defense order, as well as in the field of placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, provision of services for federal state needs that are not related to state defense order, information about which constitutes a state secret).

FAS functions

The main functions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service are:

Control over compliance with antimonopoly legislation, including in the field of electric power industry, use of land, subsoil, water and other natural resources;

Supervision and control over compliance with the legislation on natural monopolies;

Supervision and control over compliance with advertising legislation;

Control in the field of placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, provision of services for federal state needs (with the exception of the authority to control in the field of placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, provision of services under the state defense order, as well as in the field of placing orders for supplies goods, performance of work, provision of services for federal state needs not related to the state defense order, information about which constitutes a state secret);

Control in the field of placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, provision of services for the needs of constituent entities of Russia and municipal needs in the cases and in the manner established by the legislation of Russia on placing orders;

Control over the implementation of foreign investments in business entities of strategic importance for ensuring the defense of the country and the security of the state.

The key legislative acts that guide the FAS Russia in their work are the Federal Laws “On the Protection of Competition”, “On Placement of Orders for the Supply of Goods, Performance of Works, Provision of Services for State and Municipal Needs”, “On the Procedure for Making Foreign Investments in Business Companies which are of strategic importance for ensuring the defense of the country and the security of the state”, “On Advertising”. Since February 01, 2010, the FAS Russia has been monitoring compliance with the antimonopoly requirements established by the Federal Law “On the Fundamentals of State Regulation of Trading Activities in Russia”. The FAS Russia is subordinate to the Government of Russia (reports directly to the Chairman of the Government of Russia). The Service submits an annual report on the results of its activities to the Government of Russia.

Powers

In accordance with the Regulations on the FAS Russia, the service is endowed with the following main powers:

Adoption of normative acts on issues within the competence of the service (only the central office);

Implementation of control over compliance with commercial and non-profit organizations, physical. persons (including individual entrepreneurs), federal executive authorities, state authorities of the constituent entities of Russia and local governments of legislation in the established area, including the consideration of cases of violations of the law, the issuance of binding orders, conducting scheduled and unscheduled inspections, attracting persons guilty of violating the law to administrative responsibility;

Exercising control over economic concentration in commodity markets, coordinating transactions with shares (stakes) and property of commercial organizations in cases provided for by antimonopoly legislation;

Research of commodity markets and establishing the presence of a dominant position on them by individual economic entities;

Maintaining a register of unscrupulous suppliers, which includes information about suppliers (contractors) who evaded the conclusion of state or municipal contracts based on the results of tenders, as well as suppliers (contractors) whose contracts were terminated in court due to non-fulfillment or improper fulfillment of their obligations ;

Consideration of applications of foreign investors on approval of transactions with business entities of strategic importance for ensuring the defense of the country and the security of the state, or on approval of establishing control over such companies.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia and its territorial bodies initiate cases of violations of the law in the area of ​​their competence on the basis of applications from individuals and legal entities. persons, materials of law enforcement agencies, as well as on their own initiative based on the results of inspections carried out by the service. Cases are considered by a commission created for these purposes, consisting of employees of the antimonopoly authority in the amount of at least three people. The chairman of the commission is the head of the antimonopoly authority or his deputy. When considering cases in relation to credit institutions, half of the commission should be representatives of the Central Bank of Russia. Cases are considered by a commission with the participation of the parties (the applicant and the defendant), who state their position and provide evidence in support of it, after which the commission, in the absence of the parties, makes a decision on the case by a majority vote of the commission members by open voting. If it is necessary to obtain additional evidence, to involve interested persons in the case, the consideration of the case may be postponed, and if it is necessary to conduct expert examinations, it may be suspended. Based on the results of the consideration of the case, the proceedings on the case may be terminated due to the absence of violations of the law in the actions considered by the commission, or the defendant is found to have violated the relevant norms of the law - in this case, he is issued an order to stop the violation. The decision and order of the antimonopoly authority may be appealed in court.

Not all Russian citizens understand what the antimonopoly service does and what issues it is in charge of. The information presented in the article will clarify this issue. The functions and powers of the Federal Antimonopoly Service are determined by Government Decrees No. 189 of April 7, 2004 and No. 331 of July 30, 2004, as well as the law "On Protection of Competition" and other documents.

The main mission of the FAS is the effective protection of competition and entrepreneurship for the development of the Russian economy. The antimonopoly body in its activities pursues the achievement of the following goals:

• Creation of positive conditions for the development of competition.
• Ensuring equal access to the market for small and medium businesses.
• Achieving a high level of efficiency of budget expenditures in public procurement.
• Ensuring equal access to products of natural monopolies.
• Elimination of the competition-restricting influence of public authorities on the functioning of markets.

Structure of the Antimonopoly Service of Russia

The named department has been headed since its foundation and to the present. The structure of the antimonopoly service includes the head and eleven of his deputies, including the secretary of state, assistants to the head, as well as divisions in the main areas of activity - departments headed by chiefs. There are departments within the departments.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service includes the central office and territorial departments. The central office is located in Moscow at the address st. Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya, 11.

In the regions of the Russian Federation, the antimonopoly regulation of the FAS is carried out through the territorial bodies, which currently number 82. They exercise the same powers as the central office, with the exception of the adoption of regulations. It should also be noted that only six territorial departments of the FAS Russia control the defense order.

Protection of competition and free enterprise

The main activity of the antimonopoly body is control over compliance with the Federal Laws "On Protection of Competition" and "On Natural Monopolies".

We list what the Federal Antimonopoly Service does under this legislation:

1. Handles cases of violation of such legislation.
2. Issues to organizations (including subjects of natural monopolies) and authorities binding orders to stop violations of controlled legislation or to eliminate the consequences of such violations.
3. Issues warnings about the completion of actions that violate as well as warnings about the inadmissibility of such actions.
4. Brings to administrative responsibility for violation of the law.
5. Establishes the dominant position of the organization in the market.
6. Carries out inspection of activity of the enterprises which are carrying out trade in the markets of the certain goods.
7. Exercises other powers stipulated by the said federal laws.

Enforcement of the law on advertising

Other powers

When answering the question of what the Antimonopoly Service does, it is impossible not to mention that this agency is also authorized to consider appeals and applications from citizens and organizations on issues that fall within the scope of the said organization.

It has the right to conduct inspections of compliance with antimonopoly and other legislation controlled by the department by various organizations, including authorities at various levels.

In addition, the Antimonopoly Service annually prepares a report on the state of competition in the country, and also engages in rule-making activities in the established areas of the service, prepares explanations on the application of legislation.

The FAS is actively developing international cooperation on competition law enforcement issues.

As we can see, the department has a wide range of powers and functions, which makes the antimonopoly service a powerful and effective subject for ensuring the economic security of the Russian Federation in modern conditions.

February 13, 2020 On measures to prevent the importation and spread of a new coronavirus infection on the territory of the Russian Federation and on the implementation of decisions taken earlier on this issue

January 31, 2020 On decisions following the meeting of the operational headquarters to prevent the importation and spread of a new coronavirus infection in the territory of the Russian Federation On additional measures to prevent the importation and spread of a new coronavirus infection in the territory of the Russian Federation

November 14, 2019 , Foreign investment Briefing by the Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemiev after the meeting of the Government Commission for the Control of Foreign Investments

November 8, 2019 Dmitry Medvedev's meeting with Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemyev

October 30, 2019 , Department of Housing and Utilities Indices of changes in the amount of citizens' fees for utilities for 2020 approved Order dated October 29, 2019 No. 2556-r. The index for the subject of the Federation determines the maximum allowable increase in the total payment of citizens on average for the corresponding region, serves as the basis for the head of the subject of the Federation to approve the limit indices for changing the amount of payments made by citizens for utility services in municipalities.

October 25, 2019 , National project "Safe and high-quality roads" On decisions following the meeting on the implementation of the national project "Safe and high-quality roads"

September 4, 2019 , The government submitted to the State Duma a draft law on expanding the tools for preventing violations of antimonopoly law Order dated September 4, 2019 No. 1979-r. The draft law proposes to fix in the legislation the concept of “system of internal compliance with the requirements of antimonopoly legislation (antimonopoly compliance)”, establish the procedure for its organization by economic entities, determine the main requirements for the content of internal acts of economic entities that form antimonopoly compliance.

August 29, 2019 , business environment. Development of competition Report of the Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemiev at a Government meeting On the state of competition in the Russian Federation.

August 16, 2019 , System of state control and supervision The government submitted to the State Duma a draft law on changes in the legal regulation of the activities of antimonopoly authorities Order dated August 15, 2019 No. 1816-r. The draft law proposes to establish that if an application is accepted to appeal against the order of the antimonopoly authority to the arbitration court, the execution of the order issued to a state authority or local government should not be suspended, unless otherwise provided by a judicial act. In addition, in order to provide additional guarantees for the protection of the rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs during an unscheduled inspection, it is proposed to introduce the obligation of the antimonopoly authority to notify the prosecutor's office of the start of an unscheduled inspection for compliance with the requirements of the antimonopoly law on the prohibition of concluding anticompetitive agreements. The proposed changes will help minimize the negative impact of anti-competitive decisions of the authorities on commodity markets, increase the legality during inspections by the antimonopoly authority.

July 1, 2019 The Commission for Legislative Activities approved the draft law on changes in the legal regulation of the activities of antimonopoly authorities The draft law proposes to establish that if an application is accepted to appeal against the order of the antimonopoly authority to the arbitration court, the execution of the order issued to a state authority or local government should not be suspended, unless otherwise provided by a judicial act. In addition, in order to provide additional guarantees for the protection of the rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs during an unscheduled inspection, it is proposed to introduce the obligation of the antimonopoly authority to notify the prosecutor's office of the start of an unscheduled inspection for compliance with the requirements of the antimonopoly law on the prohibition of concluding anticompetitive agreements. The proposed changes will help minimize the negative impact of anti-competitive decisions of the authorities on commodity markets, increase the legality during inspections by the antimonopoly authority. On changes in the procedure for the formation of utility service payment indices Decree of June 13, 2019 No. 756. The list of grounds for establishing indexes for a municipal formation that exceed the index for a constituent entity of the Federation by more than the deviation for this constituent entity has been shortened. The purpose of the decision is to exclude the possibility of an unreasonable increase in fees that citizens pay for utilities.

1

Since the second half of last year, when world oil prices have steadily crept down and retail gasoline prices in most countries have moved in the same direction, all of Russia has been perplexed: why are our prices not falling? It got to the point that the prime minister could not stand it anymore: where is the FAS? Why is he sleeping?

The Federal Antimonopoly Service, of course, did not sleep - for several years now it has been fighting oil monopolists, who unreasonably raise fuel prices. But this struggle remained unnoticed by the general public. And after the prices at gas stations began to really fall, the abbreviation FAS began to flicker more and more often in the popular vocabulary.

What do people know about the service

And yet, not much is known about FAS yet. Three organizations - the Institute of the National Project "Social Contract", the Society for the Development of Entrepreneurial Initiatives and the Center for Civic Analysis and Independent Research - conducted a study on the observance of public interests in the activities of the antimonopoly authorities in 2008.

All respondents were divided into three approximately equal groups. The first group assessed the effectiveness of the work of the FAS bodies as high and medium, the second - as low, and the third group could not evaluate it at all. Moreover, a quarter of the respondents do not know at all what the territorial bodies of the FAS are doing, and in some regions the proportion of those who did not know reached 60 percent.

Simply put

For the first time in Russia, the antimonopoly body appeared in 1990. At first it was called the State Committee of the RSFSR for Antimonopoly Policy and Support for New Economic Structures. Then it was transformed into the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Antimonopoly Policy and Entrepreneurship Support (MAP of Russia). In March 2004, the ministry was abolished and the Federal Antimonopoly Service was formed.

Its tasks are the development of regulatory documents, as well as control and supervision over compliance with competition in the commodity markets, in the financial services market, control over the activities of natural monopolies and compliance with advertising legislation. In addition, the Federal Antimonopoly Service was instructed to monitor the correct placement of orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, and provision of services for state and municipal needs.

In simple terms, the antimonopoly authorities exist to ensure that enterprises compete fairly with each other, so that they do not set unreasonably high (or, conversely, low) prices for their products or services, so that business sharks cannot swallow "trifle" for a great life so that they do not enter into a criminal conspiracy with each other and with representatives of the authorities, and that the same authorities cannot dictate their own selfish conditions to business.

Opportunities in order to identify certain violations of competition rules, the bodies of the Federal Antimonopoly Service now abound. Back in the early 2000s, it took antimonopoly officials two or three years to prove price fixing in court, and as a result, companies got off with a small fine. Now the process has accelerated several times, and the punishment for the same price collusion is up to 15 percent of the company's annual turnover. In some cases, even imprisonment is provided.

By the way, oddly enough, it is officials who today are the main violators of competition law - they account for more than half of all detected violations. In second place in the ranking of violators are natural monopolies. However, ordinary citizens are more likely to encounter other monopolies, so to speak, of a local spill - in shops, markets, gas stations, etc. within, for example, one regional center. And here the antimonopoly legislation and the possibilities of the FAS are already more modest. But the service promises that even such monopolists will get their hands on it. The first in line are retail chains.

The consumer always wins

After, together with the liquidation of the Ministry of Antimonopoly Policy, the obligation to protect consumer rights was removed from the functions of the antimonopoly agency, it would seem that ordinary citizens should lose any interest in the activities of the department. Monopolists, cartels, conspiracies - this is somewhere very far from the common man. What is the benefit to me, Ivan Petrovich Sidorov, from the fact that the Federal Antimonopoly Service fined an oil tycoon billions of rubles for unreasonably raising gasoline prices?

Actually there is a benefit. And the most direct. To collect a fine for boorish behavior of a business is only part of the work of the FAS. The main thing in such a situation is to force the business to set fair prices. Last summer and autumn, a decrease in retail prices for motor fuel was observed almost throughout the country. And this is the merit of the FAS.

Credits. Almost all citizens who in recent years had to take loans from banks faced the fact that after signing the contract they found out that they would have to pay on the loan much more than they expected. The initial information about the terms of the loan and contracts were drawn up in such a way that a person without special education could not understand what it would turn out for him. Therefore, the FAS, together with the Central Bank, developed rules for disclosing information for borrowers. As a result, many banks not only began to tell the truth, but even reduced some of the costs of servicing loans to consumers.

Another example. New laws and control over the placement of state and municipal orders made it possible last year to save 260 billion budget rubles. In practice, this means, for example, that the cost of medicines for privileged categories of citizens is reduced, for some items - by two to three times. Thus, the state gets the opportunity to either buy more medicines or use the saved money for other social needs.

Federal Antimonopoly Service

Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya, 11, Moscow,

D-242, GSP-5, 123995.

Phone: +74997957653

Direct speech

FAS head Igor Artemyev on monopoly, corruption and his own agency

"Corruption potential in the antimonopoly service is high, and with the adoption of the new law it will become even higher. Accordingly, preventive measures must be taken now" (July 2006).

"Every year we uncover more than 200 cartels. But I call it regional bunny catching. The big fish are getting away with it so far. Only one major conspiracy has been proven in the time I've been working" (October 2008).

"I believe that the Federal Antimonopoly Service has not yet become a macro-regulator in the Russian economy ... Either we will really become such a body that will be reckoned with, or we will all be rightly fired and other specialists will work in our place who will try to do this" ( October 2008).

"Our health care is in such a situation that this is one of our top priorities in 2009. Trade networks continue to discriminate against producers, farmers. Education is dominated by monopolism, monstrous bribes, huge tuition costs" (February 2009).