Anti-competitive Agreements in Russian Courts

Abstract

This article presents the analysis of implementation and interpretation of antitrust legislation in Russian courts, in the field of anti-competitive agreements cases. This article proceeds from the previous research which provided the analysis of the court decision database of litigations with the Russian competition authority (the FAS) initiated in 2008-2010. In this research (which covers court cases of 2011-2015) we provide the database of 646 court decisions and examine the tendencies of applying antitrust prohibitions and legislation in courts. We show how the database structure varies from the point of view of main markets and types of agreements, taking into account the standards of proof. The analysis reveals that the Rule of reason (ROR) approach was not actually applied in courts, despite legislative possibilities. Type 1 errors risks tends to decrease, especially in public procurement cases, cases of banks and insurance companies cooperation. Requirements in the field of market analysis in decisionmaking are also increasing.