TheAnnual Congress of the International League of Competition Law – LIDC(Switzerland) was for the first time held in Kyiv during September 19-22, 2013.The Congress brought together over 100 participants from around the world(Brazil, Japan, USA, Europe, Australia, and CIS), including reputablescientists, leading practitioners in the field of competition law andintellectual property as well as representatives of European and Ukrainiancompetition authorities.

TheInternational League of Competition Law (LIDC) is an association ofprofessionals established to study competition law, intellectual propertyrights, as well as unfair competition. The Annual LIDC Congress has been heldfor more than 20 years and is one of the largest international events in thefield of competition law and intellectual property. Upon its resultsresolutions are adopted, with possible solutions for discussed issues andrecommendations to governments.

Thisyear the Congress was hosted in Kyiv by the Association for Resistance toUnfair Competition, the official LIDC representative in Ukraine. Law firmsAsters and Arzinger which actively practice in the spheres of competition lawand IP supported the Congress as sponsors. 

“Associationfor Resistance to Unfair Competition, the official LIDC representative inUkraine, has the great honour of hosting this important large-scale event, amajor one in the area of ​​competition law and intellectual property, inUkraine. We are particularly proud of the fact that the Congress is heldoutside the European Union, and namely in Ukraine, for the first time in its 20years’ history, which further emphasizes the importance of the event forUkraine in developing international relations and in positioning our country onthe world stage as a nation that respects and develops competitive relationsboth in business and society,” says Sergiy Shklyar, Dr. jur., FoundingPartner of Arzinger, President of ARUC in Ukraine.

Openingthe Congress, Chairman of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) VasylTsushko thanked the participants and organizers for having chosen Kyiv as avenue for the Congress and for considering the issues that Ukrainian antitrustauthorities are concerned with today. Mr. Tsushko said that the Ukrainianantitrust legislation has been established mainly due to and with the help ofthe leading European and international experts and is constantly being refinedand improved.

TheAntimonopoly Committee of Ukraine actively engages and seeks advice ofinternational experts. Thus, in the course of the Competition Promotion Programfor 2014-2024 we actively involved UNCTAD and ICAP experts as well as otherinternational experts. As a result, the Committee received good and seriousmaterials that were further implemented and applied in finalizing the Program.“The program will be passed as a bill. It was approved by the Government inAugust and is now undergoing the formalities to be submitted to the Parliament.Its preparation involved international experts and practically all theauthorities, up to the regional level, as well as scientists, the legalenvironment, and companies. We have tried to take all into account so that theProgram could work afterwards... European experts helped us to develop the Billon State Aid for Business Entities, which will be considered by the Parliamentand will also facilitate the development of competition,” Vasyl Tsushko noted. 

Inthis regard, the International Congress on Competition Law in Kyiv isparticularly important for the development of competition in Ukraine. “Webelieve we will obtain important and interesting material for analysis andstudy based on the results of the Congress. We will also share experience withinternational counterparts and learn theirs to improve the Committee’s effectiveness,”Mr. Tsushko concluded. 

Workingclosely with the LIDC Office and the LIDC Scientific Committee, ARUC developeda program dedicated to urgent issues, such as antitrust regulation of retailfood market, incompliance with CSR policies, unfair commercial practices andrecovery of damages caused by the breach of ​​antitrust law, FRAND standards,trademarks and market aspects of the new top-level domains as well as theobservance of antimonopoly legislation. Speakers on the above issues were therespected and well-known international experts in the area of competition,including: Prof. Frédéric Jenny, ESSEC Business School (France); GuyTritton, Hogarth Chambers (Great Britain); Prof. Anselm KampermanSanders, Maastricht University (Netherlands); Dr. Claudia Tapia,LL.M, BlackBerry (Germany); Dr. Szilvia Szekely, European Commission; RichardWolfram, Attorney-at-law (USA); Christian Loyau, ETSI (France);Prof. Muriel Chagny, University of Versailles (France); BruceKilpatrick, Addleshaw Goddard (Great Britain); Dr. Marco Hartmann-Rüppel,Taylor Wessing (Germany); Dr. Torsten Bettinger, LL.M.; BettingerSchneider Schramm (Germany).

Aseparate panel was dedicated to the observance of antitrust legislation and thekey issues of economic competition in Ukraine and Russia. Presentations weredelivered by Mykola Barash, State Commissioner of the AntimonopolyCommittee of Ukraine; Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of the FederalAntimonopoly Service of Russia, German Zakharov, consultant of the lawfirm ALRUD, Executive Director of the non-commercial partnership “PromotingCompetition in the CIS” (Russia), and Natalia Ivanytska, Dr. jur.,Senior Associate at Arzinger, ARUC expert (Ukraine). The panel was moderated byOleksander Voznyuk, Counsel, Antitrust Law Practice, Asters (Ukraine). 

Inhis report “Development of Competition Policy Implementation in Ukraine” MykolaBarash presented the results of performance of the Ukrainian competitionauthority throughout the duration of the modern competition law system inUkraine (since March 2002), including the cessation of 39,000 violations withmore than 5800 notices provided. Among the important causes of such violationshe noted the imperfect market structures, crisis manifestations in the economy,the low effectiveness of self-regulation mechanisms as well as the impact ofcompetition restrictions of international origin.

Accordingto Mr. Barash, the main areas of competition policy in Ukraine are themodernization of AMCU’s work, the improvement of the legal framework for thedevelopment and protection of competition and the establishment of acoordination mechanism to reform and develop the market relations.

AndreyTsyganov shared the experience of competition authorities and the effect ofcompetition law in Russia. Thus, according to the statistics for 2012 the FASof Russia opened proceedings in more than 10,000 cases. In that regard, more8173 violations of antitrust laws were found, with the respective finesamounting to 11.6 billion rubles (about 380 million USD). Among theachievements of the Russian authorities were the reduced pressure on businessdue to the reduction of control over economic concentrations in the part ofmergers and acquisitions. For instance, in 2014 it was planned to completelyeliminate the notification procedure for the consideration of economicconcentration transactions. In the long term, FAS of Russia sets itself thetask to increase the effectiveness of enforcement based on global bestpractices and to reduce the administrative burden on business. These tasks aredisplayed in the long-term strategy till 2024 as approved by the Federal AntimonopolyService of Russia in 2013.

Theissue of antitrust regulation in Russia was continued by German Zakharov, whodescribed the standpoint of business regarding the formation of an effectivecompetition policy. The positive impact of changes in the law in respect ofanti-competitive agreements, according to Mr. Zakharov, are the separation ofanti-competitive agreements and concerted anti-competitive actions, theliberalization of vertical agreements regulation and the development oftechniques to interpret legislation. At the same time, there is a risk oflowering standards of proof (substitution of notions of competition assessmentand of market analysis).

Inher turn, Natalia Ivanytska highlighted some actively discussed issues ofantitrust systems functioning in different jurisdictions, as the approach totheir solution predetermines the model of effective functioning of businessstructures and regulation of their behavior by competition authorities. Inparticular, Natalia revealed the specifics of approaches in the USA, the EU,Russia and Ukraine to resolve issues such as cartels and concerted action,parallel behavior, standards of proof, Leniency, and methods of determining thelevel of fines.

Thesecond day of the Congress was dedicated to two scientific issues: (1) theeffectiveness of anti-monopoly regulation in the retail food market (mergers,restrictive practices, abuse of dominance); (2) whether incompliance with CSRpolicies (corporate social responsibility) shall be deemed unfair commercialpractice.

Earlier,the national groups of LIDC, including ARUC, submitted their reports on each ofthe issues. Based on them, international speakers developed detailed reports.One of the national speakers on scientific issues from Ukraine was a leading expertin the field of Ukrainian antitrust and competition law Timur Bondaryev,Managing Partner and Head of Antitrust and Competition at Arzinger, and IgorSvechkar, Parter at Asters.

Atthe end of the presentations and discussions the Congress participants draftedresolutions on each of the scientific issues, proposing possible solutions andrelevant recommendations to public authorities. The texts of the resolutionsare available on the LIDC Website: www.ligue.org

Atthe end of the Congress Sergiy Shklyar thanked again everyone for participationand said: “We thank everyone for their participation in the Congress in Kyivand are really glad to have the opportunity to lead an open dialogue on such ahigh international level. By exchanging experiences and disclosing specificapproaches to resolving issues in the area of antitrust and competitionregulation we make the development and strengthening of fair rules of economiccompetition as well as the harmonization of competition law real and effectiveactions rather than declarative statements.”