On February 15, 2018, a meeting with the management of the Russian Antitrust Directorate for St. Petersburg took place at the St. Petersburg International Business Association (SPIBA) where vital antirust issues were discussed.

Andrey Astanin, Of Counsel of the Antitrust practice at Capital Legal Services, spoke on the topic of “How to establish and prove facts of unfair competition to achieve a quick response from the antitrust authority to competitors’ unlawful actions.”

In his presentation, Andrey particularly noted the common complexities involved when gathering evidence on the Internet, and spoke of the actions to take quickly if:

• a web site administrator cannot be revealed;
• the web site administrator and the owner of information on a site are different entities;
• unlawful information has been deleted or altered;
• unlawful information is being posted on web sites by someone other than competitors.

What types of expert examinations need to be conducted in order to confirm that a violation has taken place, depending on the form of unfair competition? How do you obtain such evidence as public opinion? How do you interact with social services? How do you choose the right audience and territory to conduct research? Andrey Astanin answered all these questions in his presentation.

The Deputy Head of the Russian Antitrust Directorate for St. Petersburg Vyacheslav Tukachev participated in the meeting, along with representatives of major transnational companies.

Unfair competition can lead to changing a market share and influence to the benefit of the offender. That is why it is important to have the right strategy for combatting competitors’ unfair actions.

The issues presented, the discussion and the position of the Russian antitrust authority were of great interest for the audience.