Analytics and brochures

The Russian Supreme Court’s Plenum has prepared a clarification on the most controversial issues of the application of anti-trust legislation by courts. On the one hand, the Court has ensured consistency with the approaches it developed previously: its Resolution No. 2 dated 4 March 2021 (the “New Resolution”) almost completely replaced Resolution No. 30 “On certain issues arising in connection with commercial courts applying antitrust legislation” dated 30 June 2008 of the Plenum of the Russian Supreme Commercial Court (the “SCC Plenum's Resolution”), except for the provisions regarding administrative liability, which remained unchanged. On the other, a striking feature of the clarifications was a signal of the need to follow the principle of reasonableness, which implies that business entities’ conduct should be assessed from the perspective of economic strategy and effectiveness.

Decrees, orders or guidelines regulating protective measures in Russia differ from region to region.

The concept of “collective dominance” is reflected in the Federal Law “On the Protection of Competition” (the “Competition Law”). Despite the concept of “collective dominance” not being directly used in the legislation, the criteria creating the conditions for it to emerge are set out in Part 3 of Article 5 of the Competition Law. Qualitative and quantitative criteria are distinguished.

The Eurasian Economic Commission (the “Commission”) is becoming ever more significant as a platform for antimonopoly authorities in the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (“EAEU”) to engage with each other in the area of investigations, information exchange and the reviewing of cases that show signs of a breach of general competition rules for cross-border markets. Although the Commission’s administrative and judicial practice is not yet sufficiently extensive, it has already shaped the principal approaches to analysing such markets and helped to identify the areas where regulation requires further improvement and various tools need to be used for the closer collaboration of the Union’s controlling bodies.

The economic crisis sparked by the coronavirus pandemic is pushing the Kremlin to clamp down on tax avoidance and close an offshore loophole popular with Russian business, as the government scrambles to plug holes in its budget. Starting in January, Moscow says it will begin taxing at higher rates profits that companies transfer to lower-tax jurisdictions such as Cyprus, Malta and Luxembourg, marking some of the most aggressive steps taken by Moscow in recent years to claw back tax revenue. “Some company clients are looking into options to change their corporate structures, move jurisdictions or return to Russia,” said Rustem Ahmetshin, senior partner at Moscow-based law firm Pepeliaev Group.