Criticism of the bill of the Federal Antimonopoly service (FAS), which strengthen the competitive regulation of the IT industry, followed by the market participants and the Ministry of communications was made by the Ministry of economy. There insist that, according to the report on the state of competition in Russia, the problems in this area is not, in principle, as the number of violations is reduced by itself. But experts stress that to prosecute is stopping just the current antitrust immunity.The economy Ministry published on regulation.gov.ru negative regulatory impact assessment of the package of amendments FAS to the law “On protection of competition” that extend the antitrust rules to the results of intellectual activity (RIA).As told “Kommersant” (see, for example, “Kommersant” on 25 may), it will primarily affect the IT companies for which the initiative would mean the abolition of antitrust immunity. It is reflected in the fact that market participants, in particular, is not subject to the prohibition on abuse of dominant position and anticompetitive agreements. Insists FAS, in such cases, the REED can be used not only in order to innovative development, but also to monopolize the market and restrict competition.The Ministry of economy assured that the problems to be solved by the project, the FAS does not exist. The Ministry noted that, according to the very same service on the state of competition in Russia in 2018, the number of cases on violations in the field of IT “continues to decline”. The use of rights to intellectual property shall be governed by civil and not by the antitrust laws, add to the economy, citing negative reviews of the business. For example, the Russian Union of Industrialists and entrepreneurs (RSPP) criticizes the reference FAS to foreign experience, explaining that, despite the lack of antitrust immunities, the ability of regulators in the markets IT is still significantly limited.The project FAS been criticized and the Ministry of communications (see “Kommersant” on March 27), and IT-the developers appealed to the government to suspend the discussion of the initiative for at least a year, to support the industry during a pandemic (see “Kommersant” on April 2). This measure was not included in the support package the industry, main part of which will be tax reform to reduce insurance contributions and income tax and increase VAT on foreign software (see “Kommersant” on July 10).FAS say that the continuing completion of the project, adding that while he is under consideration by the government and “constructive criticism”, including of the economy are taken into account.The position of the FAS is clear: society transformirovalsya, the digital economy becomes the engine of economic growth, and the regulatory mechanisms of these markets in service is essentially no, says senior lawyer at Deloitte Legal Mihail Stetsenko. However, her approach, according to the lawyer, “cannot be called a careful or balanced”: the changes are proposed to the law “On protection of competition”, will affect not only IT, but also retail, pharmaceuticals and real sector, which also important of the exclusive rights of intellectual property and the mechanism of commercialization through licensing.Supporters of regulation believe that the economy is the decline in the practice of consideration of cases on violations in the field of IT can be explained just by the fact that the immune system does not allow such things to bring and consider. This, in particular, specifies the Director of the Institute for law and development at the Higher school of economy Alexey Ivanov.Such disputes are numerous, confirms the Deputy Chairman of the RSPP Committee on intellectual property and the creative industries Anatoly Semenov. He cites the example of a lawsuit domain name Registrar Salenames to the coordination centre of domains .EN .Of Russia (“Kommersant” reported on 5 February). The Complainant then stated that the focal point of unreasonably raised prices in a market where it holds a dominant position, but with antitrust immunity, the claim was denied, recalls Mr. Semenov. In the case of “Yandex” against Google when the search engine wanted to be integrated into Android, FAS defended “Yandex”, said the expert, indicating the need to observe the “predictability of the law and equality before him.”Yulia Stepanova, Yulia Silence
