OREANDA-NEWS. November 02, 2009. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) initiated a case against "Doctor Web" Ltd. for the elements of violating Part 3 Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition". FAS Russia suspects that the company violated the law by exercising actions towards not supplying products to official suppliers if they breach the company's pricing policy, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The price policy of "Doctor Web" Ltd. obligates the authorized suppliers to sell software to end-users at the prices specified in the official price-list.

It eliminates possibility of the authorized suppliers, who are independent economic entities, to compete with each other through free prices for software, as "Doctor Web" Ltd. exercises thigh control over the pricing policy.

To pursue it, "Doctor Web" Ltd. sends newsletters to the end-users of software indicating the selling prices and warns that if they deviate from those prices, the supply contract will not be concluded.

According to FAS Russia, coordinating economic activities of market participants by "Doctor Web" Ltd. van lead to economically and technologically unjustified refusals to conclude contracts with particular sellers or buyers (customers), if such refusals are not directly provided for by the federal laws.

The case against "Doctor Web" Ltd. will be heard on 19th November 2009.

The Chelyabinsk Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (the Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia) already processed a case on a similar violation of the antimonopoly legislation by "KasperskyLab" CJSC.

In Particular, OFAS Russia established that "KasperskyLab" CJSC adopted a cooperation program which contained a condition for selling software to the end-users at the recommended price, and the license contracts with distributors also included anticompetitive condition. Also the company established the mechanisms of civil liability for non-compliance of the participants of the sale chain with the pricing policy of the software vendor.

It resulted in fixing the same prices for software, and in particular, to the situation when for a quotation request by the Federal Registration Service of Russia in the Chelyabinsk region all economic entities who are authorized suppliers of KasperskyLab, quoted the same price of their offers for the government contract. The price was the same as the recommended price specified in the official price-list of KasperskyLab" CJSC.

The Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia found that those actions Part 3 Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition". "KasperskyLab" CJSC voluntarily eliminated the violations.