OREANDA-NEWS. September 27, 2010. The Commission of the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Republic of Buryatia (OFAS Russia) found that the “Crisis Management Centre of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters (EMERCOM of Russia) in the Republic of Buryatia” (further on referred to as the “Crisis Management Centre of EMERCOM in Buryatia”) violated Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia. 

The case was initiated upon a petition of “Monitoring Centre” Ltd. According to the petitioner, the State Fire Supervision Authority, of the Main Office of EMERCOM of Russia in the Republic of Buryatia (Gospozhnadzor) is interested that all emergency signals (“01”) are connected to the only firm – the “Zabaikalsky Centre for Rescue and Environmental Technologies” Ltd. The petitioner is incurring losses related to dismantling of equipment installed in educational institutions. The latter are treated by Gospozhnadzor as if they failed to execute the order because if signals go to the panels not connected to the radio monitoring system of the “Crisis Management Centre of EMERCOM in Buryatia”, for example, signals connected to “Monitoring Centre” Ltd., they do not meet fire safety requirements. Currently the “Fire Safety Passport” can only be issued to those educational institutions that have concluded contracts with the “Zabaikalsky Centre for Rescue and Environmental Technologies” Ltd.

Having investigated the petition, Buryatia OFAS Russia concluded that antimonopoly violations could have been committed by a legal entity different from Gospozhnadzor, which is named in the petition. OFAS named the “Crisis Management Centre of EMERCOM in Buryatia” as the respondent, because it serves as the basis for the system for centralized surveillance and control over automated fire safety equipment at the facilities with presence of many people, subject to fire risk, socially important, and life-support facilities. The system transfers fire signals from a particular facility directly to the fire teams. It enables fire teams to react to a fire on controlled facilities in the shortest possible time, excluding the human factor. The decision to implement the systems was made by the Main Office of EMERCOM of Russia in the Republic of Buryatia in 2008 due to a number of major fires in the recent years in institutions with numerous restricted-mobility citizens.

Upon investigating the case, the Commission of Buryatia OFAS Russia found that the “Crisis Management Centre of EMERCOM in Buryatia” violated the antimonopoly law by concluding a contract in January 2010 for use of hardware-and software package for directing emergency signals to the “01” panel of a single economic entity – the “Zabaikalsky Centre for Rescue and Environmental Technologies” Ltd. It restricted competition among economic entities on the relevant market.

Currently other economic entities are experiencing difficulties related to connection and output of emergency signals to the “01” panel. Organizations operating on the market for providing services for installing fire alarm equipment have to apply to the “Zabaikalsky Centre for Rescue and Environmental Technologies” Ltd. for connection to the emergency panel.

According to the Statute of the “Crisis Management Centre of EMERCOM in Buryatia”, its main functions include receiving 24 x 7 calls to fire units via telephone lines with “01” number.

The “Ulan Ude City Committee on Education” Municipal Institution, which was brought into the proceedings, presented information about installing emergency buttons (“01”) (radio monitoring) in educational institutions in Oktyabrsky and Sovetsky Districts, according to which 77 out of 91 institutions were forced to enter into contracts with the “Zabaikalsky Centre for Rescue and Environmental Technologies” Ltd. (to ensure the shortest possible time for transmitting a fire signal to the emergency panel (“01”) excluding the human factor).

Buryatia OFAS Russia issued a determination to the “Crisis Management Centre of EMERCOM in Buryatia” to stop antimonopoly violations and to exercise actions towards protection of competition.

The Head of Buryatia OFAS Russia Yelizaveta Potapova said: “The outcome of the case is socially important because the main consumers of the services for installing fire alarm equipment are educational institutions and day-care centres that pay for these services using budgetary funds. As a result of the situation, most consumers were forced to sign contracts with the single economic entity, therefore competitive environment on the market is underdeveloped and prices are formed in the absence of competitive demand”.