1.1 Underlying issues of competition regulations

Competition regulations have not yet reached a high degree of development in Belarus. As of now these regulations comprise:

1. The Law of the Republic of Belarus "On Counteraction to Monopolistic Activities and Development of Competition" No. 364-Z of 10 December 1992 (hereinafter – the Antimonopoly Law);
2. Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus "On Certain Measures for Improvement of the Antimonopoly Regulation and Development of Competition" No. 499 of 13 October 2009;
3. Resolutions of the Ministry of Economy on practical aspects of state antimonopoly control (determination of dominant market position, procedure for implementing merger control, procedure for conducting antimonopoly investigations and imposing sanctions, etc.)

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1.2. Antitrust authorities: structure and competencies

Thus far there is no independent and separate antimonopoly authority in the Republic of Belarus. The functions of antimonopoly authorities are vested on the special division of the Ministry of Economy - Department of Pricing Policy (DPP).

Main competencies of the DPP are:

• monitoring of competition on various products' markets;
• overseeing behaviour of dominant entities, precluding abuse of market power and dominant market position;
• revealing and voiding prohibited competition-restrictive agreements and arrangements;
• exercising state control over economic consolidation, creation of associations and unions of legal entities.

DPP is entitled to issue binding orders requiring stopping competition-restrictive practices.

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1.3. Extraterritoriality

Unless binding international treaties state otherwise, Article 3 of the Antimonopoly Law extends its applications to the situations whereby competition-restrictive actions are committed outside the territory of Belarus, but affect or may affect competition or entail other adverse consequences at the Belarusian product market(s).

Having said that, practice of extraterritorial application of Belarusian laws is quite limited and mainly deals with merger control.

DPP on a regular basis cooperates with other (mainly CIS) competition authorities through exchange of information, holding joint training sessions and participation in the Interstate Competition Policy Council.

The legal basis for the Interstate Competition Policy Council's work is the Treaty on Conducting of Coordinated Antimonopoly Policies of 25 January 2000 (between Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).

In addition to that Belarus is a party to the Agreement on Uniform Principles and Rules of Competition. This Agreement was reached on 9 December 2010 between Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan and envisages closer cooperation of the contracting parties' national competition authorities and grants supra-national competition control competence to the Commission of the Customs Union.

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