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русский
Conferences and Speeches

10th Eurasian Antitrust Forum

Wednesday, October 23, 2024 - Friday, October 25, 2024

Associate Anna Kornilova took part in the 10th Eurasian Antitrust Forum that took place in Astana, Kazakhstan on 23–24 October 2024. The Forum established a notable platform to discuss the actual issues of antitrust regulation.

Anna delivered a presentation dedicated to changes in the regulation of economic concentration (merger control) that came into force in August 2024.

Anna highlighted the key aspects of new legislative initiatives aimed at strengthening control over economic concentration and simplifying the application process for consent to economic concentration.

Special attention at the Forum was paid to the debates around the new antimonopoly law amendments package, which covers the proposed changes under consideration in the Majilis (parliament). The package is aimed at adapting legislation to modern economic realities and market needs thus making the regulatory process more efficient.

The key points enunciated by the Forum are:

1. Tightening control over transactions:

  • The amendments package includes new criteria for evaluating transactions that would help identify potential threats to competition. For example, the regulator is considering the possibility of recognizing transactions involving the acquisition of more than 25% of shares or participatory interests in a market entity as economic concentration. It is also proposed to introduce the regulatory oversight over intra-group transactions that currently are exempt from the perimeter of economic concentration.

2. Optimization of antitrust compliance institution:

  • Specifically, it is proposed to introduce the new notion of an antimonopoly audit. Violations revealed and eliminated as a result of the audit would not incur subsequent liability.

3. Boosting the activities of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) in cross-border markets:

  • The EEC intends to evaluate competition in 17 cross-border markets. Further, in 2025 it is planned to conduct a sectoral analysis in three sectors:  pharmaceuticals, perfumery and cosmetics, and digital trading platforms.