Abstract: The subject of this research is the norms of antimonopoly legislation aimed at prevention and suppression of cartels, the norms of tax legislation that define the income and establish special tax regime for professional income, the norms of the Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the draft federal law on amendments to the Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and practical implementation of the Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The goal of this research is to examine the concept of income derived by the cartel; establish whether self-employed citizens can be the subject of an offence under this category, and clarify the criminal responsibility of the parties to the cartel agreement. The novelty consists in the fact that this article is first to examine the question of attributing the individuals conducting business activity under the special “Professional Income Tax” regime (self-employed citizens) to economic entities (i.e., parties to the cartel agreement). The effective legislation indicates that self-employed citizens do not belong to this group, as they are not state registered. A substantiation is made that a conscious neglect or an indifference to such socially dangerous consequence as income unfeasible: the cartel agreement is aimed at derivation of sizeable income. A consciously indifferent attitude is possible only towards such socially dangerous consequence as infliction of considerable damage. The field of application of acquired results is the activity of law enforcement agencies.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the process of criminalization of agreements that restrict competition (cartel agreements). According to a number of experts in criminal law as well as representatives of business communities, criminalization of anti-competitive agreements is either insufficiently substantiated or not substantiated. This is why substantiation of criminalization of cartel agreements is a nettlesome issue. The object of the research is the social relations in the sphere of criminal policy regarding criminalization of deeds constituting a crime as set forth by the provisions of Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federatio. The subject of the research is the applicable criminal law provisions that set forth responsibility for cartel agreements. The author of the article analyzes the system of bases for criminalization of cartel agreements. She focuses on the social threat caused by the crime of this kind and makes a conclusion that the penal prohibition is absolutely reasonable. The methodological basis of the research includes such research methods as systems approach, historical law analysis, dialectical, formal law, formal logical and complex analysis. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author carries out a complex analysis of criminalization of the aforesaid crime in current laws and this is the first article of the kind in the academic literature. One of the author's conclusions is that criminalization of cartel agreements is reasonable at this point of social development taking into account the threat for the society and impossibility of fight against restriction of competition and opportunities of criminal justice and historical legal traditions.