OREANDA-NEWS. April 30, 2009. The Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District revoked the rulings of the courts of lower instances and confirmed validity of the conclusions made by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) regarding the Forestry Department for the Moscow Region and Moscow (Mosleskhoz), which organized the actions for selling the right for the leasing contracts for the forest plots owned by the state, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

On 16th June 2008, FAS Russia found that Mosleskhoz violated Part 2 Article 17 the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition". Mosleskhoz violated the law by setting unlawful limitations for the persons that intended to participate in the auctions, which took place in December 2007.

Investigating the case, FAS Russia established that Mosleskhoz issued the order "On Organizing a Forestry Auction for Selling the Right for the Leasing Contracts for the Forest Plots Owned by the State". The document set the starting time and the deadline for filing auction applications - 12th and 14th December 2007 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. According to the auction documentations and the auction notices, applications were accepted at the designated days and time at the organizer's address (the address of Mosleskhoz). At the same time, the auction notices, published by Mosleskhoz in a periodic print media and at the official web site, did not contain information about the provisional entry for filing the auction applications. The officers of Mosleskhoz personally accepted the applications from the prospective participants. There was no possibility to file applications in any other way, for example by post.

Article 17 the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" prohibits restrictions of auction access that are not provided for by the federal laws and/or other normative legal acts, if competitive tendering is organized by the federal executive bodies. By such actions Mosleskhoz set unlawful restrictions for the applicants, whereupon FAS Russia pronounced that the auctions were unlawful and did not serve the legitimate interests of all parties.

Under Part 4 Article 17 the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition", violating the rules set by Article 17 constitutes the grounds for the court to invalidate the tendering and the contracts signed upon the outcome of such tendering, in particular, upon the lawsuit filed by an antimonopoly body. The lawsuits, filed by the Antimonopoly Service, are currently being processed by the Moscow Regional Arbitration Court.