The increased global M&A activity and the renewed interest of the international investment community in the CIS economic region have been the key factors for selecting the topic of antitrust regime for joint CIS LCN publication. A clear tendency has also emerged of cross-border deals involving several countries of CIS region, requiring a comparative cross-regional analysis. In addition, the laws and regulations, as well as the practices of antitrust authorities in our jurisdictions are becoming increasingly comprehensive and sophisticated, which prompts the need to regularly monitor changes in the legislation and implementation practices.

The practical Guide will help you navigate through the antitrust regimes in the CIS economic region and stay current with the updates that we will be adding on a regular basis. Each country material (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine) consists of five sections covering:

1. Overview of competition regulations and authorities
2. Prevention of monopolistic activities and unfair competition, including subsections on:

• Dominance
• Monopolistic agreements and concerted actions
• Unfair competition
• Antitrust investigation
• Implications for infringers

3.Control over economic concentration, including subsections on:

• Transactions subject to approval
• Approval / notification thresholds
• "Groups" and "intragroup deals"
• Exceptions from transaction approval requirements
• General approval procedure
• Implications of a failure to obtain approval

4. Current case law trends
5. Basic trends in the development of antitrust laws in 2012-2013