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In February 2018, Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled that trademark owners’ claims against parallel importers may themselves be “abusive” if they unjustifiably limit importers into Russia or if the owners’ branded goods are overpriced. The Court also ruled parallel imported goods may only be confiscated and destroyed if they fail to meet required standards of quality, safety, health, environment or culture. The court effectively ruled that IP rights should not be used to limit competition, even where rules offer the opportunity to seek compensation from the parallel importer, said Elena Sokolovskaya, head of the antitrust practice at Pepeliaev Group.
Cases are being encountered ever more frequently when anticompetitive agreements during bidding processes are entered into and implemented using auction robots. Bad-faith participants of procurement are developing more sophisticated schemes for breaching antitrust prohibitions and are able to cover the digital traces of anticompetitive conduct. The regulator in turn is learning to identify such traces, to document them and to prove robotic collusions. Examples of the successful fight against this are already available.
The majority of my colleagues agree that the most spectacular event of the VIII Saint-Petersburg International Legal Forum was the one where the Russian telecommunication company Megafon presented its legal robot. Not only did the robot appear in front of the public, but also represented one of the disputing parties in a mock case.
It is hoped that the tax treaty between Russia and Hong Kong will improve economic relations between the countries and increase their level of transparency. Rustem Ahmetshin, a Senior Partner at Pepeliaev Group for Bloomberg BNA.
On 3 October 2017 the Russian Ministry of Finance published the draft “Main directions of the budgetary, tax and customs tariff policies for 2018 and for the planning period of 2019 and 2020”. The document states that it is necessary for Russia to reduce its dependency on the export of oil. Over the next several years this will have to be accomplished in difficult economic and international conditions. New investments in the country's economy will need to be attracted.
Bilateral trade and investment flows between Hong Kong and Russia are expected to expand over the next couple of years as Russia shifts its economic focus to Asia, and the conclusion of the comprehensive double taxation agreement (CDTA) between the two parties.