A new law that came into effect in Russia on March 12, 2020, introduces antitrust compliance into Russian law. Among other things, this new law could serve as a legitimate basis for Russian subsidiaries of multinational companies to comply with global antitrust policies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the amendment to Federal Law No. 135-FZ “On the Protection of Competition” (the Amendment) on March 1. The Amendment introduces the notion of antimonopoly (antitrust) compliance into Russian law and came into force on March 12, 2020.
The Amendment defines the system for “procuring internally the compliance with the anti-monopoly legislation requirements” (the antimonopoly compliance system) as a set of legal and organizational measures (a) provided in internal act(s) of a business entity or of another person belonging to the same group of persons with this business entity if such internal act(s) apply to such business entity, and (b) aimed at compliance with the anti-monopoly legislation and preventing breaches. Under the Amendment, introduction of the antimonopoly compliance system is optional for a company regardless of its size and business.
Importantly, the Amendment allows a company to follow the compliance policies of other entities if these policies are designed to apply to that company. This is a very important rule: there is no other federal law in Russia that speaks about observing the so-called group or global policies, e.g., policies established by a parent entity to apply to its subsidiaries. In effect, this new rule could serve as a legitimate basis for Russian subsidiaries of multinational companies to comply with global antitrust policies. (To do so before this Amendment, a Russian company needed to adopt its own local policy mirroring the global policy.) Of course, by default, provisions that contradict Russian law will not apply.
Full Content: JD Supra
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