MINSK, 26 March (BelTA) – During an online conference on BelTA's website Belarusian Deputy Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade Minister Ivan Vezhnovets unveiled possible amendments to antimonopoly laws.
“First of all, I would like to talk about warnings. We have seen that these mechanisms really work; they achieve the desired results (to optimize the process and eliminate violations fast). Today warnings are applied to a small range of violations – anti-competitive actions of government agencies and certain actions related to the abuse of market power. We want to extend this instrument to cover other violations, for example, unfair competition,” he said.
Another possible amendment is the release from liability for those who voluntarily report a violation and remove it, thus restoring good competitive practices. This instrument is already used in the Russian Federation and other countries. It has not made its way to the Belarusian legislation yet. “I believe that it could significantly ease the way violations are eliminated,” he informed.
At the same time, administrative liability for violating antimonopoly laws might be toughened. “On the one hand, we are seeking liberalization. On the other hand, there are still some infringements that are not covered by administrative liability. In this case we issue an improvement notice, and only when the second improvement notice is not fulfilled, we can hold an infringer liable. Therefore, I believe we can toughen punishment here in order to discipline infringers,” Ivan Vezhnovets said.
