Antitrust in Intellectual Property: in Search of Reasonable Balance

On the eve of releasing the fifth antitrust package for public discussion, one of the key issues related thereto was reinvented in an unexpected way in Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of February 13, 2018 No. 8-P1. It is about interpreting Art. 10 of Federal Law of July 26, 2006, No. 135-FZ On Protection of Competition regarding the established exception in the course of distributing antitrust regulations on right holders. Does the new position of Russia’s Constitutional Court imply the need to make legislative changes in the possibility of introducing antitrust restrictions in the field of intellectual property? What may these restrictions be like and what should be considered by legislators in case of their introduction? Konstantin Suvorov, the firm’s partner, is quoted as commenting.