Differentiation of criminal liability as an element of criminal law policy in the field of fair competition protection

The subject of the study is the issues of differentiation of criminal liability for crimes infringing on fair competition (hereinafter also anti–competitive crimes), as an element of criminal law policy in the field of protection of fair competition. In particular, the problems of identifying such a group of crimes, criteria for differentiating responsibility are studied using the example of analyzing both named and non-specified elements of crimes of certain qualifying signs of crimes, other means of differentiating responsibility for their commission, problems of building sanctions for crimes of the group in question.The purpose of the work is to assess the current state, identify problems of differentiation of criminal liability for crimes that infringe on fair competition, in the light of official recognition of the need to counter them as a threat to economic security, and identify ways to solve them. The research methodology is based on general scientific and private scientific methods of cognition – historical and legal, methods of system analysis, logical, comparative, formal dogmatic methods, the method of legal forecasting and classification, questionnaires. The novelty lies in: 1) in the study of the provisions of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in their relation to the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" in order to establish criteria for the allocation of a group of anti-competitive crimes and substantiate the differentiation of responsibility for their commission; 2) in proposals on the allocation as independent elements of crimes of certain types of violations of antimonopoly legislation for which criminal liability has not been established, as well as on the inclusion in a number of articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of a sign of committing a crime for the purpose of unfair competition, as differentiating responsibility for crimes involving illegal trafficking of intellectual property in the field of entrepreneurship; 3) in the analysis of problems of means of differentiating responsibility for encroachments on fair competition and in proposals for their improvement, 4) in the proposal to keep official records of a group of anti-competitive crimes in the field of the formation of static reporting on crimes committed in the structure of crimes of economic and corruption orientation. The conclusions are that the elimination of the problems of differentiation of criminal liability for anti-competitive crimes, as well as the official accounting of such crimes, is the key to the effectiveness of the entire criminal law policy in the field of fair competition protection.

criminal law policy, differentiation of criminal liability, cartel, unfair competition, means of differentiating responsibilities, anti-competitive crimes, criminal liability, bid rigging, leniency program, anti-competition agreements