Formation and development of criminal liability for crimes infringing on fair competition

The subject of the study is the legal foundations of Russia's criminal law policy in the field of fair competition protection in their historical development, namely the sources of Russian legislation of the XVIII-XXI centuries, containing grounds for criminal liability for encroachments on fair competition, legal acts regulating competitive relations, as well as scientific research by scientists of the XIX-XXI centuries, including dissertations, scientific publications on aspects of legal regulation of competitive relations, criminal prosecution for encroachments on them.The purpose of the work is to identify the historically conditioned attitude of the Russian state towards encroachments on fair competition, their criminalization, penalization and differentiation of responsibility for their commission, systematization of crimes against fair competition, as well as to study the legislative technique used in the formulation of criminal law prohibitions.  The main method of research was the historical method, which allowed us to study the genesis of domestic criminal legislation, which provided for liability for encroachments on fair competition. The logical, comparative method, the method of system analysis, and classification were also used. The main result of the work is the conclusion about the usefulness of taking into account domestic legislative experience in determining the criteria for criminalizing acts that infringe on fair competition, systematizing crimes against fair competition, methods and techniques for formulating criminal law prohibitions against their commission. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the conducted analysis of domestic legislation can help in substantiating and making decisions of criminal and political significance in relation to understanding the system of crimes against fair competition, criminalization of socially dangerous acts directed against fair competition, their penalization, differentiation of responsibility for their commission, the application of existing criminal legislation and their improvement. The findings can be especially useful in legislative and scientific activities, as well as in the field of education.

criminal law policy, competition policy, cartel, unfair competition, crime against competition, criminal code, criminal liability, violations at auction, protection of competition, anti-competition agreements