ON GUARD FOR FAIR COMPETITION

Abstract

Federal Law № 216 of July 29, 2009 «Banning, Limitation and Elimination of Competition» moved a number of amendments to Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the RF that reflect considerable changes in the attitude of the government to the role of the criminal code as a means of protecting fair competition in our country. The amendments proposed to the «antimonopoly» article of the criminal law came into effect on October 30, 2009. A long and, so to speak, tiresome process of drafting that started in April, 2006 preceded the adoption of the statute. The initial version of the statute was worked out by the specialists from the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, later on it was completed and agreed upon with the participation of all the interested parties: the RF President Administration, the RF Ministry of Justice, the Ministry for Economic Development of the RF, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RF, the Federal Antimonopoly Service. Despite the fact that the newly adopted version of Article 178 is considerably different from the one offered by the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences its key-points were not modified.