OREANDA-NEWS. January 25, 2010. The Federal Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District confirmed legitimacy of the decision and determination issued by the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Rostov Region (the Rostov OFAS Russia) regarding "COMSTAR-Regiony" CJSC, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Earlier the Rostov OFAS Russia found that "TsTS Yug" CJSC (currently - "COMSTAR-Regiony" CJSC) violated Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (abusing dominant position by unreasonably fixing different prices (rates) for the same products).

The company violated the law by fixing different rates for telephone connections of company's subscribers with subscribers of "MTS" OJSC and subscribers of other providers of cellular services in the Rostov region. For subscribers of "TsTS Yug" CJSC the cost per minute of telephone connection with subscribers of "MTS" OJSC was higher than for a similar connection with subscribers of other cellular service providers.

Investigating the case, the Commission of the Rostov OFAS Russia was able to prove the so-called "collective dominance": although "TsTS Yug" CJSC has an 8% share of the market of local communication, in totality with four other providers it reached more than 90%, which enabled decisive impact on general conditions of goods circulation (Clause 3 Article 5 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition"). In this context the antimonopoly body rightfully arrived to the conclusion that increasing the rates for the subscribers of "TsTS Yug" CJSC for the connection services to only subscribers of "MTS" OJSC constituted abuse of dominant position.

"TsTS Yug" CJSC disagreed with the arguments of the Rostov OFAS Russia and filed a law suit. Although the Court of the first instance allowed the claim, other judicial instances - both the 15th Arbitration Court and the Federal Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District - confirmed the rightness of the position taken by the antimonopoly body.