Roaming within the Customs Union should be set to zero

The roaming setting to zero in the territory of Common Economic Space between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus is one of the practical tasks of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) to regulate cross-border markets. This was announced at a round table session "Legal aspects of ensuring equal competitive conditions in the Common Economic Space" by the member of the board (the Minister) on competition and antitrust regulation EEC Nurlan Aldabergenov. Recall that the roundtable is held on Thursday in Ufa.

“In Europe this issue is solved very efficiently. According to recent data, in 2015 the EU seeks to ensure the roaming setting to zero”, the Minister said. “One of our practical tasks is set the roaming to zero.”

The market analysis has shown that the roaming call rates within the Customs Union are 20-50 times higher than the rates of international calls in the home network, according to the materials of the EEC. Currently, a "draft decision of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council providing for mechanisms of gradual reduction and subsequent setting to zero the roaming" is being developed.

Eurasian Economic Commission also focused on issues of passenger rail and air transportation markets, petroleum and petroleum products markets, wholesale market of new cars and spare parts, medicines market.

The roundtable participants spoke about the "parallel imports" of branded goods. It is assumed that its legalization will promote competition between independent suppliers and authorized dealers that will result in lower prices.