OREANDA-NEWS. May 06, 2009. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) initiated a case against "Budapest" OJSC, "Pyotr I" OJSC, "Mospromstroil Hotel Management" Ltd., "President-Hotel" Federal State Unitary Enterprise violated Clause 1 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (which prohibits competition-restrictive agreements and concerted actions), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

FAS Russia sees the signs of antimonopoly violations in concerted actions of the above economic entities on the market of hotel services, which can lead (or are leading) to fixing accommodation prices (rates) during "Eurovision -2009".

FAS Russia sent more than 50 enquiries to the hotels in Moscow in order to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the market of hotel services and possibly extend the list of persons that can be brought in the case.

The case will be heard on 14th May 2009.

Should the fact of an antimonopoly violation be ascertained, FAS Russia will impose administrative charges upon the above hotels in the form of turnover fines in the amount of one hundredth to one fifteenth of the proceeds gained by the violators from selling the goods (works, services) on the market where the violations were committed.

Reference:
On 4th February 2009, the St Petersburg OFAS Russia established the fact of price collusion between 11 hotels in St Petersburg. The hotels violated the antimonopoly legislation by simultaneously raising the room rates during the St Petersburg Economic Forum in June 2008. Under Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations the companies are facing fines from 1 - 15% of the proceeds of the violators gained by selling the goods on the market where the violation was committed.