The amendments to Article 178 of the Criminal Code set tough penalties of up to six years imprisonment for crimes aimed at obstructing competition. Particularly severe penalties are set for cartel agreements.
At a meeting today with Director of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service Igor Artemyev, the President said that the new provisions should be applied with great care. But at the same time, business needs to respect competition rules and not commit serious violations of the criminal legislation in this area.
Mr Medvedev noted that the difficulties in protecting competition are exacerbated today by the economic crisis, which is forcing the authorities to provide targeted support to individual businesses, including at federal level. But this support should be only a temporary measure, and once the financial situation improves, the economy should become self-regulating and the state’s job should be only to draft and ensure compliance with competition rules.