Criminal legal counteraction to anti-competitive agreements in the BRICS countries

Abstract

Background. The role of BRICS, created in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is constantly growing and today it is this interstate union that is the driving force behind the recovery of the global economy. Thus, according to the economic partnership strategy, these countries together combine 43 % of the world's population, 21 % of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), 17.3 % of world trade in goods, 12.7 % of world trade in services and 45 % of world agricultural production. Given the above, issues related to the development and protection of competition in these countries are becoming increasingly important. At the same time, each of the BRICS member countries is well aware of the problem of one of the most serious infringements on competition – anticompetitive agreements, therefore, the attitude of the legislators of these countries to the use of criminal legal means to counter such actions is of scientific interest. Materials and methods. Normative legal acts and scientific works on the problem under study were analyzed. The methodological basis is represented by such methods as comparative legal, formal legal, systemic and structural. Results. This article presents the results of a comparative legal analysis of the legislation of the BRICS member countries in terms of regulating the grounds for criminal liability for anti-competitive agreements. Conclusions. The author comes to the conclusion that the BRICS member states demonstrate a different approach to the use of criminal law means in order to counteract cartel agreements. Based on the results of the study, the content, characteristics, features of the legal order of the BRICS member states were determined in order to form proposals for improvement in the relevant part of domestic legislation and law enforcement practice.

Keywords

• cartel
• anticompetitive agreements
• agreements restricting competition
• restricting competition