In 2023, Russia celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Constitutional and legal principles of protection of competition laid down 30 years ago are the fundamental guideline for the formation and evolution of modern state policy for competition development in Russia.

Three years ago, additional significance to this principle was given by the new article of the Constitution 75.1, which proclaimed the creation of conditions for sustainable economic growth and improvement of the well-being of citizens for mutual trust between the state and society.

This constitutionally stipulated need to protect competition and ensure sustainable development of the state rightfully forms the semantic core of antimonopoly regulation.

Consolidation of the key principles of protection of competition at the constitutional level is part of the legal architecture of both key western jurisdictions, which have historically had relevant constitutional provisions, and our partners from the BRICS countries. For instance, recent discussions of the decision of the Constitutional Court of South Africa on the Mediclinic, Wilmed and Sunningdale merger in 2021 showed close connection of the competition protection approach with the constitutional principles of organising life in the country.

In Russia, the issue of protection of competition is also present in the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. For instance, in Resolution of February 13, 2018 No. 8-П the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation directly established that protection of competition applies to all types of legal relations, which is not fully implemented in Russian legislation, since a whole range of economic relations on intellectual rights is expressly excluded by law from the field of competition protection.

Thirty years since the adoption of the Constitution and three years after the inclusion of a new article 75.1 is a good time to discuss the implementation of the constitutional principles of protection of competition both in legislation and in enforcement practice of our country. The experience of our colleagues from the BRICS countries and other jurisdictions is a solid base for discussion of these issues.

Combating cartels and other anticompetitive agreements is one of the priority activities of competition authorities. Such work is especially important in the sector of state and municipal procurement to ensure state economic security.

FAS Russia has built an effective system for fighting bid-rigging, from detecting signs of collusion to bringing violators to administrative and criminal liability.

Digitalization of the process of detecting signs of concluding and implementing anticompetitive agreements will allow for significant budget savings, estimated in billions of rubles, through decartelization of state and municipal procurement and creation of competitive conditions for bidders.

That is why FAS Russia closely cooperates with developers of various data systems and tools, and is also working on a new version of the "AntiCartel" automated information system, the creation and financing of which is supported by the Government of the Russian Federation and is planned for 2024-2025.

During the session, participants are invited to discuss priority activities when combating cartels, innovative solutions to challenges faced by competition authorities, consider best practices in suppressing and identifying cartels, as well as get acquainted with existing digital tools used to combat cartels.

The largest cross-border and local M&As have always been on the agenda of antimonopoly regulation. In dynamically changing economic conditions, authorities face new challenges.

Firstly, many transactions represent cooperation between digital companies in fundamentally new markets that require adapted approaches to economic analysis of impact on competition. Secondly, cross-border transactions involve many jurisdictions, requiring cooperation between antimonopoly authorities and development of common approaches. Thirdly, international cooperation and foreign investments in sectors that are strategic for the economies of states can give rise to special regulatory requirements that combine the tasks of encouraging investment, protecting competition and ensuring a balance of national interests.

Finally, regulators may have to assess transactions involving the sale of assets to new investors by current shareholders due to the introduction of unilateral restrictive measures. Such transactions may be horizontal in nature. However, their implementation implies the prospect of preserving the company and its development by a specialized investor. Balanced approaches to developing precise regulatory decisions, and even special regulation of such transactions are required.

Currently, issues of developing competition in the global pharmaceutical market are among the key issues on the agenda of the antimonopoly authorities.

One of the most promising pharmaceutical markets now is the market of biosimilars, that is, analogues of original biopharmaceutical medicines. In 2022, the global value of this market was estimated by experts at approximately 500 billion US dollars, with stable growth expected in the near future. At the same time, competition in the markets for biological medicines does not exactly follow the rules of competition for synthetic medicines (due to the peculiarities of the biological structure of such medicines), which means that competition authorities and industry regulators need to adapt their existing regulatory tools to ensure the availability of such medicines.

Regulators use various mechanisms to increase the availability of medicines, increase production volumes, reduce costs and prevent anticompetitive practices.

Emergency registration of a medicine, patenting and compulsory licensing are among such mechanisms. The institution of compulsory licensing has a central place in the system of checks and balances in the field of intellectual property and is used by countries as an anti‑crisis tool that helps restore the balance between the interests of rights holders and society in need of access to innovation.

Recently Russia used a compulsory licensing mechanism for the production of the Remdesivir medicine. In many countries of the world, including Vietnam and South Korea, there is an institution of "patent linkage", which implies that the issuance of a registration certificate for a medicine is dependent on the presence of a valid patent for the original medicine. Brazil provides a number of exceptions to patent protection, while India
and South Africa allow actions to make, use, sell or import a patented invention if they are carried out solely for the purpose of collecting and filing information. China allows the production, use and import of patented medicine or medical devices to provide information necessary for administrative procedures and government registration.

These measures are aimed not only at saturating the market with the necessary medicine in a certain period of time, but also at creating a favorable business climate and achieving long‑term economic growth.
An issue that has not yet been resolved in Russia is the boundaries of the application of antimonopoly legislation to intellectual rights. In Russian antimonopoly legislation "immunities" for violations related to the exercise of intellectual rights are still present. However, internationally such exceptions do not exist, and abuses of intellectual rights that have a restrictive effect on competition are investigated by antimonopoly authorities.

During the session, participants are invited to discuss trends in the use of compulsory licensing and other forms of utilization of an invention without the permission of the rights holder, consider current issues of protecting intellectual property rights, and also assess how effective antimonopoly regulation contributes to the growth and development of the pharmaceutical market, including by adjusting anticompetitive behavior associated with the abuse of intellectual rights.