On September 19, 2017 ALRUD Senior Partner Vassily Rudomino and ALRUD Partner German Zakharov participated in a round table held in the form of hearings of hypothetical antimonopoly case within the international event the “Russian Competition week”. The round table was organized by the Non-Commercial Partnership "Promotion of Competition in the CIS Countries".
The hypothetical case was based on the alleged collusion of two companies that synchronized their pricing policies through a software algorithm. The use of software algorithms in pricing is one of the key topics of the discussion between the FAS Russia and the business community. Participants of the event - representatives of the FAS Russia, foreign antimonopoly authorities and antimonopoly experts – divided into the four teams: two defendants, antimonopoly authority and antimonopoly tribunal. During the round table, problems of the influence of software algorithms on competition were discussed. Also, the heads of competition authorities of Austria and Norway shared their experience in investigation of cartels. Vassily Rudomino moderated the round table, while German Zakharov headed one of the participating teams.
The ideas presented by the participants during the discussion may serve as a basis for further cooperation between the FAS Russia and the business community in search for innovative solutions in antimonopoly regulation of the digital economy and improving legislation.