The Legal Institution of Requesting Information by the Antimonopoly Authority (Article 25 of the Law on Protection of Competition): Problems and Opportunities for Improvement

The legal institution of mandatory execution by virtue of Art. 25 of the Law on Protection of Competition, a request by the antimonopoly authority for information from controlled entities (including public authorities) acquired a modern look in 2011-2013 (hereinafter referred to as the institution of requesting information, the institution of requesting information) as an important tool for exercising the powers of antimonopoly authorities, including powers in the field of antimonopoly control and antimonopoly regulation in the Russian Federation.

This tool allows you to obtain information (including information) necessary for the exercise of numerous powers of the antimonopoly body without audits. The imperativeness of the institution of requesting information by the antimonopoly authority is ensured by administrative liability for failure to provide information, submission of information in violation of the deadline or in a distorted form (part 5 of article 19.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation), which not only guarantees a potentially high level of efficiency of such requests, but also imposes on the antimonopoly authorities additional requirements related to the validity (motivation) and relevance of such requests to the execution of specific powers. Unfortunately, the Federal Law of July 31, 2020 No. 248-FZ “On State Control (Supervision) and Municipal Control in the Russian Federation”, which entered into force on July 1, 2021 (with the exception of certain provisions), did not establish general requirements for the validity (motivation) and relevance of the information requested by the control and supervisory authorities from controlled persons.

In this regard, in the opinion of the author, there is a need for additional (both general and special) regulatory legal regulation of the request for information by control and supervisory (including antimonopoly) authorities, as well as the development of alternative tools for obtaining information about controlled entities, in including using interdepartmental automated systems for collecting and processing information.

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