Статья Policy and Regulatory Report (PaRR) от 4 января 2017 года

1. Jan 04, 2017 13:04
Russian agency chief says website's attacks are funded by
monopolist firms
PaRR Confirmed
A website criticising the Russian competition authority for favouring foreign multinationals over smaller
Russian companies has been created by sacked former employees funded by monopolist companies, the
agency’s chief, Igor Artemiev, told PaRR.
The website, Reformafas.ru, accuses the Russian competition agency of coming under the influence of
lobbying from multinational companies, including alcohol and tobacco businesses.
The website, created by Alexey Ulyanov, head of the Institute of Competitiveness and former chief of
industrial supervision at the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), accuses the agency of “dirty” business
dealings.
One recurrent theme of the website – reported within the mainstream Russian media – is that FAS spends too
much time pursuing Russia’s small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) rather than foreign companies.
According to Reformafas, during 1997-2016, 90% of the fines delivered by the US Department of Justice
(DoJ) targeted non-US companies, while only 0.5% of FAS fines were directed at foreign companies over the
same period.
The website also criticises the high number of cases that the FAS has handled in the past compared to other
competition agencies across the globe, including in the US.
A law allowing the FAS to deem a company to be a monopolist, irrespective of its market share, is described
as “anticompetitive” by the website.
“This [website] is the work of a group of former FAS employees that got fired and is being financed by large
monopolist utilities companies to tell these stories that we are for foreign and against Russian businesses,”
Artemiev told PaRR.
Artemiev said the FAS often ends up protecting foreign companies from Russian competitors trying to steal
their intellectual property, and insisted the authority does not favour any company based on its nationality.
Asked if he feared the website's comments would increase political pressure on the FAS, he said: “They can
do what they want, we will not react. It is not a civil movement, but only concerns five or six people. When
we identify Google, we will initiate a case against Google. When we identify Gazprom, we will initiate a
case against Gazprom. That is our position and the position of our President [Putin].”
The competition chief has previously said that large utility companies are the FAS' greatest adversary, and has
insisted the agency is independent from government, as reported by PaRR.
In response to Artemiev's comments, Reformafas founder Alexey Ulyanov told PaRR that he was fired
because he was actually combating large monopolies.
Russian agency chief says website's attacks are funded by monopolist firms 1

2. Ulyanov denied the Reformafas platform was funded by monopolist utility companies, and said that the group
only receives support from small and medium-sized enterprises, many of which are active in the technology
and manufacturing sectors.
by Simon Van Dorpe in Moscow
Companies
Alphabet Inc (parent of Google Inc among others)⋅
Gazprom PJSC⋅
Agencies
Russian Competition Authority (FAS) - Ð¤ÐµÐ´ÐµÑ’Ð°Ð»Ñ Ð½Ð°Ñ
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Russian agency chief says website's attacks are funded by monopolist firms 2