Maria Kobanenko advises and represents clients before the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia and Russian courts. Maria has extensive experience in the resolution of disputes related to state procurement, anti-competitive agreements, concerted actions, and the actions of business entities occupying a dominant position on the commodities market, as well as other antitrust disputes. Maria was involved in the development of the Fourth Antimonopoly Package and procurement legislation.

Maria has experience in drafting new laws and regulations, handling civil court cases, and providing legal advice in the field of corporate and antitrust law. She works mainly for clients in the pharmaceuticals, energy, fertiliser production, airport management, metallurgy, and oil transportation industries.

Her experience includes:

• Advising Pfizer on tendering for public procurement of vaccines and successfully representing the client before FAS Russia in the preliminary investigation related to the characteristics of various vaccines.
• Advising one of the largest Russian oil transportation operators on the application of procurement legislation.
• Representing EVRAZ, one of the biggest Russian iron and steel producer, in the course of consideration of a case on violation of antitrust legislation initiated by the Federal Antimonopoly Service which perceived in EVRAZ’s actions signs of abuse of dominance on the market of wide gauge rails.
• Representing a global leader in construction finishing materials before FAS Russia on charges of abuse of dominant position.
• Representing Transammiak in courts of three instances in a dispute with Minudobreniya. The dispute has been settled without revealing commercial secrets of the client. The opponent initiated the court proceedings in order to get these trade secrets revealed. At the market this situation is quite unique. Matter value: RUB 2bn.
• Representing a prominent Russian airport management company in a dispute against the regional authorities and a private investor over anticompetitive agreement conclusion.
• Advising one of the largest national fishing corporations in a dispute regarding improper sale of quotas for extraction of aquatic biological resources.

Maria graduated with honours from Saratov State Law Academy in 2003. In 2017 she earned a Master of Economics degree from Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

Maria is accredited by the Ministry of Justice as an independent expert on anti-corruption regulations.

She is a member of the General Council of the Competition Experts Association.