«Competition Policy in the Age of New Economy»

6 December (Tuesday)

09:30-10:00

Registration of participants and welcome coffee

10.00-14.00

PLENARY MEETING

«Competition Policy in the Age of New Economy»

The plenary meeting is aimed to discuss the global challenges faced by competition community in the age of new economy. The participants of the plenary meeting will deliberate on the way the competition community should develop new approaches to the regulation of markets which have increased global and transborder nature.

It is also planned to debate on the innovation development and issues related to hi-tech markets faced by competition authorities. Besides, current situation and changes of competition regulatory framework, as well as the emergence of new markets challenge the courts requiring them to adapt a flexible approach to fast-changing environment. The issues mentioned above require the participation of a wide range of experts, researchers and representatives of foreign competition authorities.

14.00-15.00

LUNCH

15.00-17.30

PLENARY MEETING

(continued)

 «Focus on Innovation of Tariff regulation»

Natural monopolies are important market actors of almost all the countries; therefore, tariff regulation is an implicit element of global regulatory system. FAS of Russia maintains that tariff regulation should be based on competition approaches, and that interests of consumers should be primarily taken into account. Besides, the system of tariff regulation should stimulate the regulated companies to innovate, reduce non-core assets and rethink their activity and market place. The issues mentioned above will be discussed during the second part of the Plenary meeting. The representatives of FAS Russia, foreign tariff regulators, international organizations and regulated businesses will give their speeches.

7 December (Wednesday)

09:30-10.00

Registration of participants and welcome coffee

10.00-12.00

WORKSHOP 1

Research Approaches to the Definition of Competition Law as an Independent Branch of Russian Law

WORKSHOP 2

Agricultural Genetics and Global Food Value Chains: Challenges for competition regulation

The workshop is aimed to examine the definition of competition law as an independent branch of law in the system of legal disciplines. The participants will discuss the issues faced by Russian research community in the relevant context and analyse related foreign experience.

Food sector experiences an important shift in the competition development dynamics. The most important issues include: intellectual property protection of the companies of the global food value chain; development of global enterprises acting in different countries and market segments; significant raise of technologies which impact the food market actors; development of global consumers’ mega-trends.

The workshop is aimed to examine from research and practice viewpoint the  industrial and technological changes in the sphere of agro-genetics and their impact on functioning of the global food value chains. Besides, the participants will be invited to compose the provisions of the prospective report on the problems of agro-genetics market.

12:00-12.30

Coffee break

WORKSHOP 3

Focus on Innovation of Procurement

WORKSHOP 4

Competition Law and Policy in the New Information Technology Markets

Innovation in the procurement could be examined from various viewpoints.

On the one hand, it is of crucial importance to build the national innovation system of public procurement which should be transparent and clear to all market actors. In this regard, the development of e-procurement platforms is of special interest.

On the other hand, in the age of the globalization of market relations, the competitiveness of national economies increasingly depends on innovations. It also relates to public procurement. The encouragement of innovation through the system of public procurement stimulates suppliers to improve the quality of goods and services, and thus, improve the competitiveness of a particular economic sector.

The discussion is aimed to develop effective models of public procurement in current economic conditions and incentives for companies to innovate through procurement activity.

The workshop is aimed to debate on the problems of competition law enforcement to the companies operating on the information markets. The importance of the discussion is explained by the wave of suits on competition law violation filed throughout the world against transnational Internet-companies. The competition law enforcement demonstrates that unresolved issues exist both at the national (for instance, the inadequacy of national legislation on defining the market of the Internet goods or services) and international level (the unavailability of the effective methods of cooperation between competition authorities within the investigation of transnational companies). The workshop participants will share the experience of competition law enforcement in relation to the market of new information technologies, discuss the problems which arise in this sphere and define possible solutions.

14:00-15:00

LUNCH

15.00-16.30

WORKSHOP 5

The Mechanisms of Economic Concentration Control:

ex-ante and ex-post evaluation

WORKSHOP 6

Intellectual Property. Pharmacy. Competition

It is planned to discuss the problems of the increasing economic concentration on the global markets and analyse the decisions adopted by competition authorities.

The workshop is aimed to discuss the problems of competition law enforcement in the sphere of innovation in pharmaceutical sector. It is planned to discuss the special aspects of the interaction of competition law and patent rights protection of pharmaceutical innovations. The importance of the issue is explained by the global interest for the development of pharmaceutical market, as well as the protection of fair competition in the context of dynamic innovation activities of the representatives of the industry.