Competition Law in the Russian Federation
The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is the main organization responsible for ensuring competition in the Russian economy.
Federal Law #135-FZ «On Protection of Competition».Competition in the IT Sphere
Russian antimonopoly laws are meant to ensure that public procurement is carried out in an open, competitive manner, and to allow the government to procure the best possible goods at the best possible price. Unfortunately, technical specifications are often written in a manner that excludes certain companies and products through the use of restrictive language that prevents bidders from participating based on criteria that are not relevant to the quality and performance of products.
Information on closed and restrictive technical specifications.
AMD is a member of the FAS IT Expert Council, which FAS relies on to address issues related to competition in the IT sphere.
Website of the FAS IT Expert Council.
Within the framework of the IT Expert Council, AMD is currently participating in a Working Group with Intel to improve the level of competition in public IT procurement. AMD hopes that this group will help Russia to adopt measures that will make the market more competitive and benefit procuring bodies and IT companies alike. AMD is working towards the development of an approach that utilizes brand-neutral benchmarking based on international best practices. For more information on successful procurement strategies used abroad, see section «Worldwide procurement practice»
AMD-Intel Settlement Agreement
On November 12, 2009, AMD and Intel announced a comprehensive agreement to end all outstanding antitrust and patent disputes.
Under the agreement, AMD and Intel obtained patent rights from a new 5-year cross license agreement, Intel and AMD gave up any claims of breach from the previous license agreement, and Intel agreed to pay AMD $1.25 billion. Intel also agreed to abide by a set of business practice provisions that will improve the level of competition in the market for CPUs. As a result, AMD agreed drop all pending litigation against Intel, including a case in U.S. District Court in Delaware and two cases pending in Japan. AMD also agreed to withdraw all of its regulatory complaints worldwide.
There are three key implications of this agreement:
- First, Intel has agreed to an important set of ground rules intended to define the path to a free and open market in the microprocessor industry;
- Second, AMD and Intel have agreed to a new patent cross-license agreement that gives AMD broad rights and the freedom to operate a business utilizing multiple foundries;
- And third, GLOBALFOUNDRIES has agreed to terms that allow it the freedom to operate as an independent world-class leading edge foundry company going forward, without being a subsidiary of AMD.
- AMD-Intel Agreement (via the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission website)
The document summarizing its key points are available for download on our site.
