OREANDA-NEWS. February 09, 2010. Saratov OFAS Russia imposed administrative charges upon the Savings Bank of the Russian Federation (OJSC) under Article 14.31 of the Code on Administrative Violations for abusing market dominance and fined the Bank 1.8 million Rubles, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Earlier the Saratov OFAS Russia found that the Savings Bank of the Russian Federation violated Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition".

In September 2008, No.8622 branch of the Saving Bank (Saratov) introduced the 10-Rubles fee for preparing a payment document when the Bank accepts cash payments from the population.

If a customer was unwilling to pay the fee when transferring the payment without opening an account with the Bank, s(he) was advised to transfer the payment using an ATM or by debiting a deposit account without paying a commission to the Bank for filling-in the payment instructions.

At the same time, when a credit organization perform operations for transferring monetary assets without opening an account, a physical person must be offered a possibility to fill-in the payment document independently. Preparing such documents on a paid basis can only be provided as an additional service upon a client's request.

The joint Commission of the Saratov OFAS Russia and the Main Office of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation in the Saratov region concluded that when the Savings Bank of the Russian Federation provided services to individual wishing to make payments without opening an account, the Bank was effectively imposing the paid service for filling-in the payment document without providing an alternative option to fill-in the document independently. The Commission classified such actions as abusing market dominance by the Savings Bank of the Russian Federation.

Reference:
Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" prohibits actions (omissions) of an economic entity that has dominant position on the market, if they have resulted or can result in preventing, restricting or eliminating competition and (or) infringing the interests of other persons.