OREANDA-NEWS. On August 20, 2007 the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) initiated a case against the Federal Service on Environmental, Technology and Nuclear Control (Rostechnadzor) for breaching Parts 1 and 3 Article 15 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition", reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

A federal executive body (Rostechnadzor) allegedly breached the law by issuing some acts and undertaking certain actions that lead or can lead to preventing, restricting or eliminating competition.

Rostechnadzor contracted out the function to administer payments for adverse impact on the environment to "TsLaTi in PFO [Privolzhsky Federal Okrug]" Federal Unitary Enterprise [FUE] and " TsLaTi in TsFO [Central Federal Okrug]" FUE and engaged these agencies in organizing scheduled as well as additional measures of state environmental control which are supposed to be carried out by Rostechnadzor territorial offices.

"Ecoline" Ltd., "Grafit" Ltd. and "Ruboti" Ltd. will take part in the case proceedings as the interested parties.

"The antimonopoly authority has already revealed similar violations committed by territorial offices of Rostechnadzor and "TsLATI" branches in the Bashkortostan Republic and the Kursk region", - said the Head of the FAS Russia's Department for Control in Housing and Communal Services, Construction and Natural Resources, Mr Vladimir Yefimov. "Such actions of Rostechnadzor not only restrict competition on the market of services on developing environmental documentation, but also create additional administrative barriers for economic agents", added Yefimov.

The case against Rostechnadzor will be heard on 17th September 2007.