FAS proposed increasing fines for not approving large transactions

The penalties established by Article 19.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Russia for failure to submit applications to the antimonopoly authority for legal entities now range from 300 thousand rubles to 500 thousand rubles, for officials – from 15 to 20 thousand rubles, for citizens, from 1.5 thousand rubles to 2.5 thousand rubles. At the same time, the amount of the state fee for consideration of the transaction by the FAS from January 1 of next year increases from 35 thousand rubles to 400 thousand rubles in accordance with 176-FZ of July 12, 2024 .

It is proposed to increase fines for citizens to 30-50 thousand rubles, for officials – to 70-100 thousand rubles, for organizations – to 800 thousand – 1 million rubles.

According to the regulator, this ratio between fine and duty actually negates the concept of state control over large financial transactions, since it is more profitable for a company to pay a fine than a state duty to verify a transaction. An increase in the payment of fines is unlikely to be burdensome for companies, since the transactions that must be considered by the FAS are carried out between companies with multi-million dollar assets and income, the lawyer of the DRT company told Kommersant, Nikita Korobeinikov.

At the end of October this year, the State Duma approved in first reading a bill expanding the spectrum of powers of the FAS to control mergers and acquisitions, regardless of the size of the assets of the acquired organization. The regulator believes that the existing transaction value limits, above which FAS approval is required, de facto allow companies to acquire an unlimited number of assets whose size does not exceed this threshold.