OREANDA-NEWS. May 17, 2011. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) found that the Office of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Control in the Khabarovsk region, Jewish Autonomous District and the Sakhalin region (Rosselkhoznadzor Office) violated Clause 2 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

FAS Russia suspected that the Rosselkhoznadzor Office violated the antimonopoly law by refusing to issue phyto-sanitary certificated for quarantine products unless consignors provided information about the vehicle identification numbers.

In course of the case investigation, representatives of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Control confirmed that inspectors of the Rosselkhoznadzor Office could not request information about vehicle identification numbers to issue phyto-sanitary certificates.

Including information about the vehicle identification numbers in the certificates considerably increases the registration period and results in significant expenses of economic entities.

The FAS Russia’s Commission has concluded that the Rosselkhoznadzor Office unreasonably prevents activities of economic entities on the market of sale of quarantine products by demanding that in order to obtain a certificate the applicants must supply information about the identification numbers of the vehicles, used to transport the quarantine products.

“FAS Russia and its regional bodies repeatedly made decisions that Rosselkhoznadzor violated the antimonopoly law issuing phyto-sanitary certificates, and issued determinations to stop the violations. However, the antimonopoly bodies continue receiving complaints about similar actions of the regional offices of Rosselkhoznadzor. It is necessary to summarize the practice of such violations throughout the whole territory of the Russian Federation and take the necessary measures to prevent them in the future”, said Deputy Head of FAS Russia, Pavel Subbotin.

Reference:

Clause 2 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits unjustified prevention of activities of economic entities, particularly, by fixing requirements for the goods or economic entities that are not provided for by the law of the Russian Federation.