BRICS Countries Support HSE University’s Project to Launch Fair Competition Platform
A meeting of the BRICS Coordination Committee on Antimonopoly Policy was held in Geneva as part of Russia's BRICS Chairship in 2024. The meeting participants supported a project to launch a BRICS Interstate Platform on Fair Competition, developed by the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre of HSE University and presented by the FAS of Russia as an initiative of the Russian Chairship.
The event was attended by heads and representatives of antimonopoly authorities from BRICS member countries, both old and new, including Russia, China, Brazil, India, South Africa, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, and Iran. The meeting agenda included a discussion of significant results achieved by antimonopoly policies in BRICS countries, reviewing and strategizing further activities of the BRICS Working Groups focused on researching competition in socially important markets, and planning for future joint efforts.
There was also a discussion of the procedure for the new BRICS members' competition authorities to join the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of competition law and policy of the BRICS countries, signed in St. Petersburg in 2016.
The meeting concluded with the participants adopting a Joint Statement by the Heads of the BRICS Competition Authorities, highlighting the need to consolidate efforts to maintain healthy competition in socially significant markets.
The proposed BRICS Fair Competition Platform envisions proactive convergence of antitrust policies among BRICS countries through mechanisms for reviewing transactions leading to economic concentration, as well as joint investigations and research within the BRICS space. This new format of cooperation will make it possible to identify problem areas related to monopolisation and cartelisation, as well as other areas in the global economy that require special antitrust attention.
The attending BRICS antimonopoly agencies supported the initiative from the FAS of Russia and the BRICS Centre and proposed that work should start to further develop the specific mechanisms for its implementation so that the project may be presented for approval at the next, 9th International Conference on Competition under the auspices of BRICS in Cape Town in 2025. The platform will enable antitrust regulators in BRICS countries to influence more actively the global architecture of economic relations.
According to Alexey Ivanov, Director of the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre, the agreement on the draft platform is a significant step toward full institutionalisation of cooperation on the BRICS antitrust track and a notable success of the Russian Chairship.
Alexey Ivanov
Director of the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre
'The challenges of the global economy and the growing complexity of business organisation require more advanced formats of cooperation. This necessity has been recognised by UNCTAD and other international expert bodies and supported by empirical data from a survey of BRICS antimonopoly agencies, conducted by the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre of HSE University in 2023.'
The survey focused on the challenges of collaboration in addressing global mergers and acquisitions and on the opportunities for deeper cooperation among BRICS regulators in this area. The survey results reveal a clear demand for closer engagement in supervising global transactions that can lead to economic concentration. The proposed launch of an antimonopoly platform is a logical continuation of the research conducted by the HSE International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre.
Of particular interest to regulators, as the first possible step and one of the key elements of the future platform, is the launch of a coordinated system for monitoring mergers and acquisitions—the so-called 'merger radar.' This system will allow monitoring transactions within the BRICS region and prevent companies from withholding information from regulators.
Alexey Ivanov explained that the proposed initiative is not just a mechanism for cooperation but an instrument for harmonising the countries' positions on how they can jointly influence the global economy, global markets, and global value chains.
'The platform will help develop and put into practice effective approaches to influencing global markets. The BRICS countries have supported the idea of creating a grain exchange, an initiative that also represents a step toward greater integration among BRICS countries. A platform to support honest and fair competition will be an effective way to facilitate agreements in other sectors,' he said.
According to Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of the FAS of Russia, the objective at this stage is to work out specific technical details of the project implementation, and the HSE BRICS Centre is about to embark on this task. 'Indeed, the need for such a mechanism of in-depth cooperation is long overdue. Cooperation in the field of antitrust policies within BRICS, founded on the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Competition Law and Policy among BRICS countries in 2016, is renowned for its successful performance. Today, regular communication has been established among the BRICS antimonopoly agencies, supported by a broad expert community from participating countries and effectively coordinated by the HSE International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre. It is necessary to build up the Centre's capacity and use its intellectual resources for launching the fair competition platform,' Andrey Tsyganov believes.
As noted by Mahmoud Momtaz, President of the Egyptian Competition Authority, 'We highly appreciate the work of the BRICS Centre; interaction within the BRICS antimonopoly community would be impossible to imagine without it. As the competition authority of a new BRICS member, we have felt tremendous support from the centre since the beginning. Earlier this year, in February, we co-hosted a joint event—a meeting of the BRICS Working Group on Food Markets.'
He believes that the ongoing large-scale sectoral study of food markets in the BRICS countries, particularly focusing on grain trade and supported by experts from the BRICS Centre, holds particular significance for Egypt. He noted that Egypt and the broader Middle East region are 'especially vulnerable due to increased concentration in certain sectors of the global food chain.'
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