OREANDA-NEWS. February 07, 2011. The Federal Arbitration Court of the North-Caucasus District upheld the judgments of the Rostov Regional Arbitration Court and the 15th Arbitration Appeal Court and, therefore, confirmed the decision and determination issued by Rostov OFAS Russia regarding “Southern Telecommunications Company” (“YuTK”) OJSC, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

On 26th January 2010, the Rostov Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Office (Rostov OFAS Russia) found that “YuTK” OJSC violated Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The company changed the pricing procedures and fixed economically unjustified subscriber fees for Internet access under the “Unlim BOOM” rate plan: the rates were deferent depending on locations of subscribers of “YuTK” OJSC in a particular group of residential areas in the Rostov region.

The antimonopoly body issued a determination requesting “YuTK” OJSC to set a single subscriber’s fee for unlimited Internet access in the Rostov region under the “Unlim BOOM” rate plan, when the price should be differentiated depending on the speed of Internet access.

Based on its decision that the company violated Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, Rostov OFAS Russia made “YuTK” OJSC administratively liable under Article 14.31 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations and fined the company 297,310.90 Rubles.

Currently “YuTK” OJSC is challenging the determination of Rostov OFAS Russia about imposing the administrative fine.

“As a result of the rate policy of “YuTK” OJSC, people in rural areas were forced to pay twice as much for Internet access as the residents of Rostov-on-Don and other big cities in the Rostov region. Fixing different prices for Internet access was not only economically unjustified but socially unfair, which caused dozens of complains of subscribers of “YuTK” OJSC from all over the regions”, commented the Head of Rostov OFAS Russia, Vadim Korneev.