Uzbek delegation attends CIS antitrust council meeting

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — A delegation from Uzbekistan, led by the Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Competition Development and Consumer Protection, Farrukh Karabaev, participated in the 46th meeting of the Headquarters for Joint Investigations of Violations of Anti-Monopoly Legislation of the CIS Member States and the milestone 60th meeting of the Interstate Council for Anti-Monopoly Policy (ICAP), which took place from 2 July 2026 to 3 July 2026 in Astana.

At the ICAP meeting, Farrukh Karabaev presented a report on key developments in anti-monopoly policy within CIS states, detailing the ongoing reforms in Uzbekistan and contemporary approaches to developing competitive policy under digital economy conditions.

In his speech, he noted that the transformations being implemented in the country are aimed at reducing state participation in the economy, developing a competitive environment, improving anti-monopoly legislation, increasing the transparency of public procurement, and further liberalizing commodity markets. The results of implementing digital market monitoring, developing the anti-monopoly compliance system, and refining mechanisms for controlling compliance with competition laws were also presented.

The participants showed particular interest in Uzbekistan's experience regarding the regulation of digital platforms. The delegation presented approaches to defining the dominant position of digital platforms and superior bargaining power, alongside the practice of implementing anti-monopoly compliance by the largest platforms.

Furthermore, the Committee's projects for deploying artificial intelligence technologies in state control were presented to the meeting participants. These projects involve using AI to monitor public procurement and commodity exchange trading, detect anti-competitive practices, automatically analyze legal documents, and process citizen appeals.

At the conclusion of the report, the main directions of the Strategy for the Development of a Competitive Environment for 2026–2030 were outlined. The strategy provides for lowering the administrative burden on business, reducing state monopolies, eliminating barriers to competition, and expanding the application of digital technologies in the work of the competition authority.

Following the meeting, Farrukh Karabaev was awarded the Honorary Badge of the Interstate Council for Anti-Monopoly Policy for his contribution to the development of international cooperation and strengthening the interaction among the anti-monopoly authorities of the CIS member states.

The event participants also discussed pressing issues in the development of competition policy, exchanged experience on the application of anti-monopoly legislation, and confirmed their readiness to further develop cooperation between the relevant agencies of the CIS countries.