Abuse of collective dominance under the competition law of the Russian Federation

Avdasheva, Svetlana and Goreyko, Nadezhda and Pittman, Russell (2011): Abuse of collective dominance under the competition law of the Russian Federation.

Abstract

In 2006, Russia amended its competition law and added the concepts of “collective dominance” and its abuse. This was seen as an attempt to address the common problem of “conscious parallelism” among firms in concentrated industries. Critics feared that the enforcement of this provision would become tantamount to government regulation of prices. In this paper we examine the enforcement experience to date, looking especially closely at sanctions imposed on firms in the oil industry. Some difficulties and complications experienced in enforcement are analyzed, and some alternative strategies for addressing anticompetitive behavior in concentrated industries discussed.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: competition law; collective dominance; abuse of dominance; Russian Federation
• Subjects: L - Industrial Organization > L1 - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance > L13 - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets; L - Industrial Organization > L4 - Antitrust Issues and Policies > L41 - Monopolization ; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices; K - Law and Economics > K2 - Regulation and Business Law > K21 - Antitrust Law; D - Microeconomics > D4 - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design > D43 - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection

References

Andrey Shastitko, Collective Dominance Through the Lens of Comparative Antitrust, CPI Antitrust Chronicle, August 2011 (2).

M. Ivaldi, B. Jullien, P. Rey, P. Seabright, and J. Tirole, The Economics of Tacit Collusion, Report prepared for the European Commission, IDEI, Toulouse, 2003, http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/mergers/review/the_economics_of_tacit_collusion_en.pdf.

H. G. Broadman, Reducing Structural Dominance and Entry Barriers in Russian Industry, Review of Industrial Organization 17 (2000), 155-175.

S.N. Tchirihin, Gasoline market: it is possible to restrict monopolism? EKO Journal 6 (2006), 17-29 (C.H. Чирихин, Рынок бензина: возможно ли ограничить монополизм? ЭКО 6 (2006), 17-29).

P. Rey, Collective dominance and the telecommunication industry, in P.A. Buiges and P. Rey, eds, The economics of antitrust and regulation in telecommunications: perspectives for the new European regulatory framework, Edward Elgar, 2004, pp. 91-113.

Jason Gudofsky, Evangelia Litsa Kriaris, and Lucian Vital, Abuse of Joint Dominance: Is the Cure Worse than the Disease? Canadian Bar Association, 2010, Annual Competition Law Conference. www.cba.org/cba/cle/PDF/COMP10_Gudofsky_paper.pdf.

Alison Jones and Brenda Sufrin, EC Competition Law: Text Cases, and Materials (3rd ed.), Oxford University Press, 2007.

Olivier Billard, Marc Ivaldi, and Sebastien Mitraille, Evaluation of the Risks of Collective Dominance in the Audit Industry in France, working paper, Toulouse School of Economics, Mai 2011.

Sophia Stephananou, Collective Dominance Through Tacit Coordination: The Case for Non-Coordination Between Article 82 and Merger Control “Collective Dominance” Concepts, GCP: The Antitrust Chronicle, October 2009 (1)

Lia Vitzilaiou and Constantinos Lambadarios, The Slippery Slope of Addressing Collective Dominance Under Article 82 EC, GCP: The Antitrust Chronicle, October 2009

Richard Schmalensee, Entry Deterrence in the Ready-To-Eat Breakfast Cereals Industry, Bell Journal of Economics 9 (1978), 305-27

rian Harris, Shared Monopoly and the Cereal Industry, Graduate School of Business Administration, Michigan State University, 1979

F.M. Scherer and David Ross, Industrial Market Structure and Economic Performance (3rd ed.), Houghton Mifflin, 1990

David Kaserman and John Mayo, Government and Business: The Economics of Antitrust and Regulation, Dryden Press, 1995.

American Bar Association, Section of Antitrust Law, Antitrust Law Developments (6th ed.), 2007.

Anita Banicevic and Mark Katz, Collective Dominance in Canada: A New Direction, GCP: The Antitrust Chronicle, November 2009

Sai Ree Yun, Seuk Joon Lee, and Sangwook Daniel Han, Korea, in Thomas Janssens and Thomas Wessely, eds., Dominance: The regulation of dominant firm conduct in 40 jurisdictions worldwide, GCR: Getting the Deal Through, 2010.

Svetlana Avdasheva, ed., Development and application of antitrust law in Russia: the path of progress and errors, Moscow, Higher School of Economics, 2011 (C. Авдашева, ред’, Развитие и применение антимонопольного законодательства в России: по пути достижений и заблуждений, Доклад. М., НИУ ВШЭ, 2001. Интернет-адрес: http://www.hse.ru/data/2011/04/05/1211687919/A_D_K_Yu.pdf)

Andrey Shastitko, Economic and legal foundations of collective dominance, Ekonomicheskaya politika 3 (2010), 167-190 (A. Шаститко, Экономико-правовые аспекты коллективного доминирования, Экономическая политика 3 (2011), 167-190)

O. Migitko, Collective dominance: lack of proof and clarity, Competition and Law Journal 1 (2010), 8-14 (O. Мигитко, Коллективное доминирование – недоказанность и недосказанность, Конкуренция и право 1 (2010), 8-14. Интернет-адрес: http://www.cljournal.ru/nomer1/15/).

L. Papadias, Some thoughts on collective dominance from a lawyer’s perspective, in Buiges and Rey, op. cit., 114-131.

Anders slund, How Russia Became a Market Economy, Brookings, 1995

James Leitzel, Russian Economic Reform, Routledge, 1995

Clifford Gaddy, The Price of the Past: Russia’s Struggle with the Legacy of a Militarized Economy, Brookings, 1996

Marshall Goldman, Lost Opportunity: What Has Made Economic Reform in Russia So Difficult?, Norton, 1996

Erik Berglof, Andrei Kunov, Julia Shvets, and Ksenia Yudaeva, The New Political Economy of Russia, MIT Press, 2003.

Vladimir Capelik and Ben Slay, Antimonopoly Policy and Monopoly Regulation in Russia, in Ben Slay, ed., De-monopolization and Competition Policy in Post-Communist Economies, Westview, 1996

Russell Pittman, Abuse-of-Dominance Provisions of Central and Eastern European Competition Laws: Have Fears of Over-Enforcement Been Borne Out?, World Competition 27 (2004), 245-258

Andrei Shastitko, Don't Throw Out the Baby with the Bathwater: On the Relationship Between Antitrust Policy and Economic Development, Problems of Economic Transition 47 (2004), 27-36.

Svetlana Avdasheva and Andrei Shastitko, Industrial Policy and Competition Policy: Problems of Interaction and Lessons for Russia, Problems of Economic Transition 47 (2004), 48-65.

Geido Friebel, Sergei Guriev, Russell Pittman, Elizaveta Shevyakhova, and Anna Tomova, Railroad Restructuring in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe: One Solution for All Problems?, Transport Reviews 27 (2007), 251-271

Russell Pittman, Restructuring the Russian electricity sector: Re-creating California?, Energy Policy 35 (2007), 1872-1883.