Criminal liability for restriction of competition through cartel agreement
Keywords:
restriction of competition, cartel agreement, criminal liability, unlawful agreement, economic damageAbstract
Relevance. Issues of ensuring competition are fundamentally important for a market economy. This is due to the need to create a highly efficient self-regulating economy, to optimise public expenditure, and to reduce costs for consumers of goods, services, and works. The most dangerous forms of competition violations are criminalised in criminal law. For a long time, the legislator has been searching for the most optimal mechanisms of criminal‑law protection of social relations that ensure freedom of competition, and has settled on the prohibition exclusively of restriction of competition through cartel agreements. At the same time, the elements of this crime are extremely complex, and the practice of applying the corresponding norm of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is so ambiguous that a comprehensive criminal‑law study of criminal liability for restriction of competition through cartel agreements is required.
Objective. The aim of the article is to determine, on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the elements of the basic and qualified compositions of the crime provided for in Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as the practice of its application, the difficult issues, and to propose, on the basis of this analysis, scientifically grounded recommendations for the optimal interpretation, application and improvement of this norm.
Methods. The main research methods employed were general scientific methods of dialectical cognition, primarily analysis, synthesis, comparison, as well as deduction, induction, and the system structural method of legal modelling.
Results. As a result of the conducted research, conclusions were drawn regarding the peculiarities of criminal liability for restriction of competition through cartel agreements: its high public danger, associated with the impact on market processes in the economy; the difficulties in determining the victims, which may include citizens, organisations and the state; the definition of the offence as fully material, with the identification of a socially dangerous act – the conclusion of a cartel – and socially dangerous consequences of two levels (the first level – restriction of competition, the second level – extraction of income on a large scale or causing major damage); the determination of the characteristics of the perpetrator of the crime, who are usually managers of commercial organisations, including state and municipal enterprises, as well as the role of officials and representatives of authority who may commit this crime as organisers, instigators or accessories
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