OREANDA-NEWS. October 07, 2009. The Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Moscow Region (the Moscow Regional OFAS Russia) found that "IKEA MOS" Ltd. (тcommerce and real estate) violated Part 3 Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (prohibiting coordination of economic activities between economic entities by commercial organisations if such coordination has resulted or can result in restricting competition), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The Commission of the Moscow Regional OFAS Russia arrived to this conclusion upon investigating the petition and information supplied by an insurance company about "IKEA MOS" Ltd. leasing premises in shopping centres в аренду площадей and the requirements to the leasees and the procedures for insuring the leased property and civil liability.

The antimonopoly investigation took more than four months.

In course of the investigation, "IKEA MOS" Ltd. repeatedly evaded presenting the requested information and documentation to the Moscow Regional OFAS Russia and was fined the total sum of 640,000 Rubles.

Having analysed the presented documents and information, the Commission of the antimonopoly body classified pronounced that "IKEA MOS" Ltd. violated Part 3 Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" because it had coordinated economic activity of market participants by imposing contract conditions to the leasees (under lease contracts), which were irrelevant to the subject matter of the contract.

In the Appendix to the lease contract, the leaser - "IKEA MOS" Ltd. - fixed the List of insurance companies, with which it recommended to sign agreements for property and civil liability insurance.

However, if a leasee fails to obtain property and civil liability insurance in the companies, included in the List, "IKEA MOS" Ltd. has the right to unilaterally terminate the lease contract.

Ignoring that there are more than 700 insurance companies registered in the Russian Federation, for several years "IKEA MOS" Ltd. was asking its leasees to choose an insurance company from the recommended List that included no more that 3% of all insurance companies licensed for such services.

Also in accord with the lease contract, "IKEA MOS" Ltd. obligates the leasees to insure their own property as well as their civil liability and the property of "IKEA MOS" Ltd.

The laws of the Russian Federation doe no require insuring leaser's property and leasee's civil liability and property; those types of insurance are not mandatory.

At the same time, more than 98 % of the leasees insured civil liability and property using the services of the insurance companies recommended by "IKEA MOS" Ltd.

According to the leasees, they chose commercial premises of "IKEA MOS" Ltd. even though contract conditions are unfavourable because of their very advantageous location and economic benefits of their use and big buyer traffic. Most of the leasees of commercial premises had to accept the contract conditions as they could not afford to not to prolong them, being present at those commercial premises for a significant period of time. Changing the location leasees would lose some of their clients (consumers).

Upon establishing the fact of the violation, the Moscow Regional OFAS Russia issued a determination to "IKEA MOS" Ltd. to stop coordinating economic activities of market participants (imposing contract conditions, irrelevant to the subject matter of the lease contract, upon tenants).

The case file is transferred to an officer of the Moscow Regional OFAS Russia to determine an administrative fine under Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations.