OREANDA-NEWS. On April 08, 2009 the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District confirmed legitimacy and relevance of the decision and determination issued by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

In January 2007 FAS Russia received a petition of "Okeanrybflot" OJSC that the "Natsrybkachestvo" Federal State Institution (subordinate to Rosselkhoznadzor, controlled by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation) carried out paid works for evaluating whether companies (vessels) complied with the EU Directives and Regulations (when registering companies (vessels) for the right to export products to the EU and the companies (vessels) that have registration numbers for the right to export products to the EU), as well as the works for documentation expertise, inspecting a lot of products, and executing conclusions about export of fish products to the EU.

Having processed the petition, FAS Russia initiated a case against the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and Rosselkhoznadzor (the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision) for violating the antimonopoly legislation.

On 9 April 2008 FAS Russia found that the Russian Ministry of Agriculture violated Clause 2 Part 1 Article 15 of the Law by lack of actions resulted in unreasonable preventing of activities of economic entities exporting fish products to the EU, which could lead to restricting competition. FAS Russia also found that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rosselkhoznadzor violated Part 3 Article 15 of the Law by assigning the functions and the rights of a regulatory body to the "Natsrybkachestvo" Federal State Institution.

Based on its decision, FAS Russia issued determinations to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and Rosselkhoznadzor.

The Ministry of Agriculture disagreed with the FAS Russia's decision and determination and appealed the part related to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Moscow Arbitration Court sustained the claim of the Ministry of Agriculture on invalidating the FAS Russia's decision and determination; however, the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court allowed the appeal of FAS Russia and revoked the ruling of the Court of First Instance and passed new judicial act dismissing the claim of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Court's ruling confirmed legitimacy and relevance of the decision and determination issued by the antimonopoly authority.

Now the Cassation Court has also confirmed the rightness of the Antimonopoly Service.