The awareness-raising event was organised in accordance with the requirements of the Action Plan of the Working Group on Commodity Market Efficiency and Competition of the Commission on Business Environment and International Ratings of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

An awareness-raising meeting on the requirements provided for in the Competition Code was held at the Antimonopoly and Consumer Market Control Agency under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (the Agency) with the participation of representatives of state institutions, local executive authorities, and also the private sector and international companies.

At the meeting, attended by around 40 representatives, Shamsi Rzali, Head of the Department for State Control over Natural Monopolies of the Agency, gave a presentation on “Methods of Implementing Control Measures by the Competition Authority in the Organisation of the Regulation of the Activities of State Bodies (Institutions)”.

In the presentation, the basic principles of competition policy in the country were brought to participants’ attention; information was provided on actions or inaction of state bodies, local self-government bodies and regulatory institutions contrary to competition legislation; and the issues of granting subsidies and other state aid and of assessing the effects of regulatory activity in this area on competition were explained.

The meeting also brought to participants’ attention the liability measures provided for violations of the requirements of competition legislation, as well as the mechanisms for applying sanctions and instructions against conduct by state bodies that violates competition.