Press-release of 08.07.2010

To increase efficiency of anti-cartel efforts criminal and administrative law should be approximated, said the Head of the FAS Russia's Legal Department Sergey Pouzyrevsky speaking on 8th July 2010 at the Russian-American workshop on antimonopoly enforcement.

Explaining the procedures for applying criminal liability for antimonopoly violations and leniency programme for cartel participants, Sergey Pouzyrevsky, said that currently decisions on applying administrative and criminal leniency are made by different jurisdictions.

"Decisions to apply administrative leniency are made by FAS Russia, while decisions to relieve a physical persons from criminal liability are made by courts. So after October 2009, when the new version of Article 178 of the Criminal Code came into force that establishes criminal liability for antimonopoly violations, the number of leniency applicants approaching FAS Russia dropped down", explained the Head of the FAS Russia's Legal Department.

Sergey Pouzyrevsky also gave detailed information to the judges about forthcoming amendments to the antimonopoly law in the "third antimonopoly package".