OREANDA-NEWS. March 30, 2011. The 11th Arbitration Appeal Court in Samara upheld the decision of the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Ulyanovsk region (Ulyanovsk OFAS Russia) that “Volzhsk Regional Generating Company” OJSC had violated Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

On 12th July 2010, Ulyanovsk OFAS Russia found that “Volzhsk Regional Generating Company” OJSC had violated the pricing procedures when the company set charges for heat supply in January – February 2009.

The case was initiated upon a petition of the residents of houses located in Ulyanovsk.

According to a Decree of the Ulyanovsk City Mayor, the annual standard for supply of heat energy per one quare meter of residential premises that do not have metering devices is 0.19 Gcal. Consumers have to pay extra or are returned the difference between the consumed heat energy for a residential premises and the overall payment for heating for the past year. Breaching the antimonopoly law, “Volzhsk Regional Generating Company” OJSC calculated the size of payment based on the volume of consumed utilities, according to the method of determining the quantity of heating energy and heat carriers in water systems for public heat supply. At the same time, this method is not registered with the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation and cannot be applicable to physical persons.

“Volzhsk Regional Generating Company” OJSC disagreed with the decision of Ulyanovsk OFAS Russia and filed a lawsuit. However, Ulyanovsk Regional Arbitration Court and the 11th Arbitration Appeal Court in Samara upheld the decision of Ulyanovsk OFAS Russia.

“Actions of “Volzhsk Regional Generating Company” OJSC infringed the interests of citizens. When the case was being considered, the house in question had a heat energy metering device installed to measure heat consumption for the house in general and payments should be arranged based on the reading of the heat energy metering device (based on actual data rather than by calculations), therefore Ulyanovsk OFAS Russia did not have the grounds for issuing a determination to the company to stop the antimonopoly violation”, said the Head of the Markets Department of Ulyanovsk OFAS Russia, Ms. Marina Stepanova.