OREANDA-NEWS. On March 16, 2009 the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court dismissed the appeal of "Summa Telecom" OJSC and upheld the ruling of the Moscow Arbitration Court, which invalidated the tender (No.4-RCh/2007) for the licenses for the services of mobile telephone communication, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications and Mass Communication (Rossvyaznadzor) withdrew its appeal claim.

The lawsuit was filed by the antimonopoly body and was based on the FAS Russia's decision of 15th August 2007. FAS Russia found that Rossvyaz had violated Article 17 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition". The tender documentation, devised by Rossvyaz included some provisions according to which unconditional advantages were granted to the bidders who already had licenses for communication services in the territory covered by the tender lot.

Having investigated the case, FAS Russia found that Rossvyaz had violated the antimonopoly legislation and filed a lawsuit on invalidating the tender.

Tye Court of the First Instance pronounced that creating advantageous position for individual bidders constituted the grounds for invalidating the tender. The Court of the Appeal Instance confirmed legitimacy of such a ruling.