OREANDA-NEWS. October 08, 2009. The Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Novgorod Region (OFAS Russia) fined "Novgorodskaya Energosbytovaya Kompania [Novgorod Power Supplier]" OJSC 16,400,000 Rubles, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.  

Earlier the Novgorod OFAS Russia found that "Novgorodskaya Energosbytovaya Kompania" OJSC violated Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition".

"Novgorodskaya Energosbytovaya Kompania" OJSC has dominant position in the retail electric power market. It exercised actions that infringed the interests of consumers, trying to choose the rates for the payment for electric power consumption. In particular, the company violated the law by using the "single rate depending on the annual number of hours of use of the state power", which was not selected by consumers in 2009, for calculating the payments for the supplied electric power with the local authorities of some municipalities in the Novgorod region. The company also committed similar violations with regard to agricultural producers of Pestovsky and Batetsky municipal districts, infringing their interests in relation to the payments for electric power.

Following the administrative investigation, "Novgorodskaya Energosbytovaya Kompania" OJSC was fined 16,400,000 Rubles under Article 14.31 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations. The fine must be paid no later than 30 after the decree on imposing the fine comes into force.

According to Vitaly Korolyov, the Head of the FAS Russia's Department for Control over Electric Power Industry, "violations committed by energy suppliers that resist their customers choosing the rates for payments for electric power, are widespread in the electric power markets. Here FAS Russia protects the interests of consumers, who have a right to choose the rate for paying for electric power. Choosing the rate allows more efficient control over the expenses for payment for electric power".

Reference:
Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" prohibits actions( lack of actions) of an economic entity that has dominant position, which have resulted or can result in preventing, restricting or eliminating competition and (or) infringing the interests of other persons, in particular, imposing unfavourable conditions upon a counteragent or conditions that are not relevant to the subject matter of the contract, and breaching pricing procedures established by normative legal acts.