Antitrust legislation changes in Belarus

The Council of the Republic approved the draft Law “On Amendments to the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Counteracting Monopolistic Activities and Development of Competition”.

According to the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade (MART), the changes come down to three main blocks:

1. procedure for conducting antitrust investigations:
   • regulation of the investigation procedure on such grounds as the receipt of materials from government bodies and at the initiative of MART;
   • the possibility of withdrawing a submitted application in cases of unfair competition in the event of reconciliation and independent settlement of the conflict between competitors;
   • reduction of investigation periods: the three-month investigation period can be extended no more than once by 6 months (currently, multiple extensions are possible, and the total investigation period should not exceed 3 years);
2. control over transactions and other actions related to economic concentration:
   • the list of actions that are not economic concentration is expanding (actions performed on the basis of a legislative act, acquiring property within the framework of enforcement proceedings and insolvency or bankruptcy procedures, as well as transfer of ownership by inheritance);
   • the thresholds determining the need for approval of economic concentration s with MART are doubled, to 400 thousand and 800 thousand base values respectively;
3. general provisions of the antimonopoly law - adjustment of terms, clarification of approaches to determining a dominant position (state bodies cannot be recognized as economic entities occupying a dominant position).