Antitrust Advisory’s associate Ivan Starikov spoke at the IV International Conference of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union

22.11.2021

On 17-19 November, the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union held the IV International Conference on ‘Ensuring the Uniform Application of the Eurasian Economic Union Law: The Role of the Court’.

The keynote speaker was Erna Hayriyan, Chairman of the EAEU Court. The conference speakers included Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Union, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission, Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives & National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Chief Executive of the Main Directorate for International-Legal Cooperation of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, Chairmen and Deputies of the Supreme Courts of the countries-members of the Eurasian Economic Union, Director of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO).

Antitrust Advisory’s associate Ivan Starikov spoke on ‘The Eurasian Economic Commission Powers to Conduct Investigations on its Own Initiative’. Ivan drew attention to several essential issues in the work carried out by the EEC, which seemed to him controversial and demanding further development and improvement. For instance, in the past several years, the EEC has been conducting investigations on its own initiative in different markets. The grounds for initiated investigations were the revealed possible signs of violation of general competition rules in cross border markets.

Ivan suggested that the EEC should provide a list of sources from which it obtains the relevant data. If an investigation is launched following the results of analytical research (for example, scientific research conducted under the Commission’s request), then it is greatly important to get these materials published, and to allow all interested parties to leave comments, and for the Commission to have a possibility to review and accept these comments. Taking into consideration a necessity of a more thoughtful approach to the launching of and of conducting investigations on the Commission’s initiative, Ivan also suggested making the standard procedural time frame for such investigations longer.

For more information on the conference please click here.