Unfair competition: the current state of criminalization

Abstract

The subject of the study is the state of criminalization of unfair competition in the Russian Federation. The article examines the relationship of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition", which contains prohibitions on manifestations of unfair competition; the elements of crimes provided for in art. 128.1, 146, 147, 180, 183, 185.3 and 185.6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, when analyzing objective and subjective signs of which elements of certain forms of unfair competition are seen, as well as law enforcement in the designated area; static data reflecting the current situation of identifying facts of unfair competition in the activities of the antimonopoly authority, law enforcement agencies, as well as aspects of interaction between the antimonopoly authority and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation in the field of countering market manipulation and the misuse of insider information as separate manifestations of unfair competition. The methodology of the research is based on the provisions of the doctrine of materialistic dialectics, as well as a systematic approach, in particular, general scientific and private scientific methods of cognition were used – methods of system analysis, logical, comparative, formal dogmatic method, method of legal forecasting and classification. The novelty lies in establishing the fact of the correlation of crimes provided for in art.128.1, 146, 147, 180, 183, 185.3 and 185.6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, with the prohibitions of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" based on the analysis of objective and subjective signs of the listed crimes, as well as the practice of sentencing in this area, in substantiating the possibility of using articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to combat manifestations of unfair competition, but also to improve criminal law norms in order to unify their content with the prohibitions of a special law. The conclusions are that the above analysis of the signs of the elements of crimes provided for in art. 128.1, 146, 147, 180, 183, 185.3 and 185.6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, indicates a certain degree of their compatibility with the prohibitions of forms of unfair competition contained in the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition", although they need to be improved. Appropriate legislative changes are advisable due to the public danger of unfair competition, the level of which may be no less than that of cartels recognized as a threat to the country's economy.