OREANDA-NEWS  On 20 February was announced, that the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation upheld the rulings of the Courts of lower instances, which declared invalid the following documentation: the Regulations on an open tender for the leasing contracts for the property of communal infrastructure of the Volgograd municipal property treasury; the Terms and Conditions of the open tender for the leasing contracts for the property of communal infrastructure of the Volgograd municipal property treasury; and the Criteria for determining a utility company that is awarded a contract for leasing the property of communal infrastructure of the Volgograd municipal property treasury through an open tender. The documents were approved by the Volgograd City Duma [legislature].

Earlier "Maks i К" filed a suit to the Volgograd Regional Arbitration Court on invalidating the above decision of the Volgograd City Duma, because such a decision effectively eliminated any possibility for "Maks i К" to participate in the open tender for a leasing contract for the property of Volgograd communal infrastructure. The Volgograd Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (OFAS Russia) was involved in the case as parties plaintiff.

The Volgograd City Arbitration Court and the Federal Arbitration Court of the Provolzhsky District agreed with the arguments of "Maks i К" and pronounced that the decision of the Volgograd City Duma contravened Articles 1, 3, 15 and 17 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition", and Articles 1.49, 89, 391, 448, and 614 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

The Courts concluded that transferring the property of water-and-sewage facilities, heat supply network, and power supply network in the same lot puts restrictions upon certain types of economic activity and access to particular goods markets (the markets of the services for water supply and water discharge, heat supply and energy supply). The Court also rules that local self-government bodies, which organize the open tenders, cannot introduce such limitations.

Vladimir Yefimov, the Head of the FAS Russia's Department for Control over Housing & Utilities, Construction and Natural Resources, said: "The Ruling of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation not only sets a precedent and confirms the rightness of the FAS Russia's position, but also clears the way to further development of competition between operators in the housing and utilities sector for the management of communal infrastructure".