Uzbekistan proposes three key areas for cooperation among CIS antitrust authorities

Antitrust authorities in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) should strengthen practical cooperation in several priority areas, including the regulation of digital platforms, monitoring of exchange trading and oversight of cross-border supplies, Olimjon Zhumayev, director of Uzbekistan's Centre for Competition Policy and Consumer Protection Research, said at the 61st meeting of the CIS Interstate Council on Antimonopoly Policy, according to Report's correspondent in Khankandi.

"The first area involves exchanging methodological approaches to analysing exchange trading, identifying coordinated actions by market participants, assessing unjustified increases in starting prices and examining the concentration of procurement procedures. A practical outcome of this work could be the systematisation of indicators of violations and the methods national authorities use to document them," Zhumayev said.

"The second area envisages expert discussions on approaches to analysing restrictions on cross-border supplies of genuine products, with an emphasis on coordination among antitrust authorities, customs agencies and bodies responsible for intellectual property protection," he added.

According to Zhumayev, the third area concerns a comparative analysis of regulatory practices for digital platforms and the use of analytical algorithms in investigations.

"In particular, it is proposed to pay special attention to the quality of source data and the verification of algorithmically identified indicators of violations," he said.

Zhumayev stressed that the Committee was ready to provide materials on these areas within its remit and in compliance with information security requirements.

"Such expert work will make it possible to draw on accumulated national experience when investigating similar cases in CIS member states," he concluded.