Antitrust Regulation

We have been vigorously developing our antitrust practice lately as one of the key areas of our work.

Attorneys at Law ‘Jus Aureum' are actively engaged with the Non-Profit Partnership for Competition Support, which is the principal public partnership for practicing lawyers  which works closely with the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia to review and coordinate new antitrust rules and regulations. 

The Attorneys at law offer a full range of legal services pertaining to Russian antitrust legislation:

• Developing and introducing an internal system minimizing the risks of claims from the antimonopoly authority (antimonopoly compliance);
• Representing clients’ interests in the antimonopoly authority with respect to preliminary approval of deals and other agreements, including joint venture agreements;
• Conducting full-scope audits of clients’ business operations for the purposes of checking compliance with the requirements of antimonopoly laws and related laws and regulations (antimonopoly audit);
• Filing appeals to superior bodies (including superior officials) and courts of law against non-regulatory rulings passed by the antimonopoly authority;
• Defending clients’ interests during scheduled and unannounced antimonopoly inspections in compliance with the requirements of applicable legislation;
• Drafting commercial policies, sales and distribution practices, rules of conduct in relations with business partners, and other local regulations covering antimonopoly issues;
• Conducting expert examinations and proposing initiatives to improve antimonopoly law compliance practices;
• Representing clients’ interests in the antimonopoly authority during proceedings involving cases falling within the scope of the regulator’s responsibility (infringement of laws on protection of competition, on advertising, on trade, on procurement of goods, etc.);
• Filing claims in court on recovery of damages in favor of clients inflicted by third parties as a result of a breach of antimonopoly law;
• Providing procurement management support: drafting documents, representing clients’ interests in the antimonopoly authority when appeals are considered, providing legal support for privatization procedures;
• Conducting legal review of deals involving economic concentration to determine the need to have such deals cleared by antimonopoly authorities (including M&A deals, deals involving plant, equipment, and intangible assets);
• Drafting appeals and related documents necessary for receiving preliminary approval from antimonopoly authorities to enter into economic concentration deals;
• Providing legal support related to obtaining regulatory clearance for entering into economic concentration deals pursuant to the provisions of Art. 31 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” (does not require prior approval of the antimonopoly authority, but a notice must be served once a deal is closed);
• Preparing motions and related documents necessary for the antimonopoly authorities to conduct a check of whether draft agreements are compliant with the requirements of antimonopoly law;
• Advising and representing the client’s interests when obtaining clearance for international (global) M&A deals and coordinate the work of law firms in other jurisdictions;
• Implementing integrated projects related to antimonopoly regulation in collaboration with leading consultants from Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and other CIS states; and
• Advising  on antimonopoly law compliance to the extent of the company’s ongoing business operations.

Recent highlights include the following:

• Carrying out an antimonopoly audit of the activities of Joint-Stock Company MEGAPOLIS Trading Company and its subsidiaries to work out recommendations to eliminate uncovered risks that antimonopoly and associated legislation would be violated;

• Advising Joint-Stock Company MEGAPOLIS Trading Company on conformity of its distribution agreement with Limited Liability Company JTI Russia (a leading tobacco company in Russia, belonging to one of the world’s leading groups for production of tobacco products – Japan Tobacco Inc.) to antimonopoly legislation in Russia, with the issuance of legal recommendations for its amendment for purposes of not including in the draft of the agreement the provisions contravening the antimonopoly legislation of Russia;

• As part of a transaction to transfer a 40% stake in Russia’s largest tobacco distributor, Trade Company MEGAPOLIS, to the world’s two leading tobacco producers, Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International, and restructure MEGAPOLIS’ assets:
  • We prepared inquiries to the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, asking for clarifications as to whether such transactions had to be agreed with antitrust bodies;
  • We assessed transactions in order to determine whether they had to be agreed with antitrust bodies, and obtained their approvals for such transactions.

• We consulted and represented the interests of Delovye Linii, LLC when coordinating M&A with the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, and obtained necessary permits for them.
• We consulted and represented the interests of OJSC DIXY Group, Trade Company MEGAPOLIS, and individuals from their group when coordinating M&A with antitrust bodies.
• As part of a transaction to buy more than 90% of the shares of one of the leading defense enterprises in Russia, OJSC V.A. Degrtyarev Plant, and its subsequent restructuring and reorganization, we assessed various transactions to determine whether they needed to be coordinated with antitrust bodies, and obtained necessary permits for them.
• As part of a transaction to acquire control of companies belonging to the Novoangarsky Dressing Plant and Gorevsky GOK, which specialize in producing and processing lead and zinc ore, and to create mining and smelting enterprises, we assessed various transactions to determine whether they needed to be coordinated with antitrust bodies, and obtained necessary permits for them.
• We provided legal support to our client who needed to obtain the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s permission for acquiring control of the Viсtoria Group of Companies, one of the leading food retailers in Russia.
• We advised and represented the interests of a group of companies belonging to our client, the largest convenience goods distributor in the CIS, who sought the permission of antimonopoly bodies in CIS countries for the economic concentration of companies as part of M&A transactions in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Tajikistan.