St Petersburg University discusses how antimonopoly regulation is developing in the field of intellectual property and digital platforms

The conference brought together scholars from leading Russia’s universities, judges and staff of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the Eurasian Economic Court, the Arbitration Court of the Central District, representatives of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Federal Tax Service, and judges of the Thirteenth and Twelfth Arbitration Courts of Appeal. The participants discussed the economic and legal aspects of antimonopoly policy today. 

Opening the conference, Marina Lavrikova, Senior Vice-Rector for Academic Activities at St Petersburg University, said that the field of antimonopoly regulation needed high-calibre personnel due to a personnel shortage in this area. To prepare specialists in this area, St Petersburg University offers the master’s programme 'Legal Protection of Economic Competition (with additional qualifications "Specialist in Procurement" / "Specialist in Competition Law")', she said. Training high-calibre personnel is impossible beyond the environment that fosters scientific and expert discussions like today’s conference, she added. Such scientific meetings are aimed, among other things, at preparing students to participate in professional scientific and expert activities, that, after completing the training, will ensure success at work.

In 2017, St Petersburg University opened a new department, i.e. the Department of Theory and Practice of Antimonopoly Regulation, which was later transformed into the Institute for Competition Development and Antimonopoly Regulation at St Petersburg University. The main activity of the Institute is to train master’s students in the programme "Legal Protection of Economic Competition".

Freedom of competition is protected in Russia at the highest level, said the experts. According to Andrei Bushev, Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, Associate Professor at St Petersburg University, freedom of competition was derived from the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation by the Constitutional Court and judicial practice. Despite the fact that there is a presumption of good faith of participants in legal relations (a legislator, when formulating such norms, acts in the public interest), nevertheless, conflicts in law enforcement inevitably arise, and the sphere of antimonopoly regulation is no exception. Any legislation cannot cover all situations that arise when resolving disputes between the parties, experts explained. In this regard, legislation is constantly changing and improving. 

At the plenary meeting, Sergey Puzyrevsky, State Secretary and Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of the Russian Federation, announced a new rule that could be included in the "sixth antimonopoly package". This provision concerns the abolition of "antitrust immunities" in the field of intellectual property. Previously, these privileges (so-called immunities) were not provided for by antimonopoly legislation, he said. The relevant changes to the law on protection of competition have been introduced since 2006. First, a provision was introduced into Article 10 that would block the application of a ban on anti-competitive actions by monopolists in this area. Then, a similar rule was introduced into Article 11 in relation to anti-competitive agreements.

Yet, due to the changes in markets and business practices and an increase in the volume of intellectual property, new challenges arise. Restriction of competition by copyright holders through abuse of exclusive rights reduces the protection of consumer interests and creates the risk of monopolisation of digital product markets. The Federal Antimonopoly Service considers it necessary to develop appropriate amendments to the law "On Protection of Competition", which could become part of the "sixth antimonopoly package". 

The second day of the conference was devoted to discussing the possibility of applying the mediation procedure to antimonopoly cases. 

The conference also brought together Natalia Pavlova, a judge of the Eurasian Economic Court; Professor Tatiana Neshataeva, an ex-judge of the Eurasian Economic Court; Aleksei Ivanov, Director of the International Centre for Competition Law and Policy of the BRICS Countries; Mikhail Schwarts, Professor of St Petersburg University; Aleftina Timoshenko, Director of the Institute for Competition Development and Antimonopoly Regulation at St Petersburg University; Ekaterina Dmitrikova, Associate Professor at St Petersburg University; and Evgenia Zhomnir, Director of the Mediation Centre at St Petersburg University.