The General Council of the all-Russia public organization «Business Russia/ Delovaya Rossia» met on May, 17 2005 to discuss the proposed federal anti-monopoly bill. Dmitry Lavrov, senior lawyer at EPAM, attended the meeting.

The meeting was opened by Igor Artemiev, head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service. In his speech, he outlined the major aspects of work on the bill: the new elements it brings, ways to increase the effectiveness of antimonopoly regulation and how to eliminate breaches of the antimonopoly law. The report also focused on the tasks and functions of the antimonopoly agencies in modern Russia.

The floor was then passed to Dmitry Lavrov, senior lawyer at EPAM, who was representing the all-Russia public organization «Business Russia/ Delovaya Rossia» at the meeting. Dmitry had been working on the bill’s drafting panel and regularly takes part in its open discussions. In his speech Dmitry Lavrov thanked the Federal Antimonopoly Service and its Head, personally, for their productive work on the bill. He underlined the importance of the efforts by the Service to suppress attempts by certain representatives of Russia’s monopolies and big businesses to insert into the bill, provisions allowing them to manipulate their dominant position, establish unfair prices, jointly share the market and influence neighboring spheres.

“To pass Antimonopoly law is essential”, Dmitry Lavrov said. “However, one should understand that it only constitutes the first step on the way to forging a full-scale mechanism of antimonopoly regulation. Wide enforcement practice will need to be developed and several derivative regulations will need to be adopted.”

Mr Lavrov closed his speech by stressing the necessity to engage representatives of public and political organizations, the business community, state officials and local authorities in working towards the improvement of the antimonopoly regulation’s mechanisms.