Although criminal liability for cartels was introduced into the Russian criminal law more than twenty years ago (in 1997), it is fair to note that, nowadays, this system does not work appropriately, nor effectively. Over the years, criminal sanctions in Russia for cartels have been very rarely used in practice. Every year, the FAS[1] renders…

The trend to digitalization has captured the economies of almost all progressive and developing countries and influenced activities of companies doing business in Russia, as well. As the Federal Antimonopoly Service (“FAS Russia”) stressed, the markets are becoming more complicated and digital. It means that virtually every company that has a computer could be considered…

The Regional office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Sverdlovsk region has recently issued a decision ordering a leniency applicant to return unlawfully gained income. The Appeal Board of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (the “FAS”) has now reconsidered this decision on appeal.   Background of the case The ground for initiating the case was the…

Background and main problems Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port PJSC (“NCSP”) is one of the Europe’s largest port operator in terms of cargo turnover and the leader in the Russian market. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (the “FAS”) found that NCSP abused its dominant position, by fixing and maintaining monopolistically high prices in 2015 for transshipment services…

Exhaustion doctrine and parallel imports Parallel imports, Intellectual Property (“IP”) protection and its correlation with antimonopoly regulation  is one of the most discussed topicsin the Russian Federation for the past 15 years. In general, the issue of parallel imports is closely associated with the exhaustion doctrine (that is, once a product protected by IP has…

M&A and other transactions involving foreign companies might sometimes raise national security concerns in specific areas of the economy such as military, dual use, advanced technology, etc. To mitigate those concerns, national governments dealing with a great number of transactions used to establish the strategic investment regimes. In many jurisdictions, strategic investment regime requires either…

Throughout the last year, the topics of globalization in the markets and digitalization of economy were extensively discussed within the governmental authorities and business community in Russia. One of the major concerns of the authorities and business community was development of competition in “digital era”. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (‘FAS Russia’) has found its pivotal…

Introduction Uber Technologies Inc. is an American transportation network company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It develops, markets and operates the Uber mobile app, which allows consumers with smartphones to submit a trip request, which is then routed to Uber drivers who use their own cars. Since entering Russia in 2013 with just a few…