OREANDA-NEWS. May 27, 2011. The Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation invalidated certain provisions about organization of ceremonial services and maintenance of burial sites, adopted by Chelyabinsk City Legislature, following a judicial review of the judgment of Chelyabinsk Regional Arbitration Court and the ruling of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Urals District. Thus, the Supreme Arbitration Court allowed the claim of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation and Chelyabinsk Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia), revoked the judicial acts and forwarded the case for reconsideration, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.   

In 2010, Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia found that some Clauses of the Regulations on organization of ceremonial services and maintenance of burial sites, adopted by Chelyabinsk City Legislature in 2006, contravened Part 3 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The Commission of Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia concluded that executing these provisions can result in restricting, eliminating and preventing competition in the field of ceremonial services.

The Regulations provided for unlawful transfer of municipal cemeteries in Chelyabinsk to a specialize service. “Memorial” Municipal Unitary Enterprise became the owner of all public cemeteries in Chelyabinsk, and as result “Memorial” was able to gain income from public cemeteries (including burial registration) although it was not the land intended for commercial use.

Despite the state guarantee for free burial, which was not possible to exercise without registering burials, this was a paid service. “Memorial” Municipal Unitary Enterprise charged for registration of burials in all public cemeteries in Chelyabinsk 912 Rubles per person. However, the antimonopoly authority established that this service must be provided by local self-government bodies or budget-funded organizations, formed by the self-government bodies, free-of-charge.

As a result, “Memorial” was able to dictate its conditions to competitors, particularly, by refusing to grant burial permit to other companies of they did not engage “Memorial” specialists to carry out the works.

The Prosecutor of the Chelyabinsk region filed a claim to the Regional Arbitration Court requesting to partly invalidate the Regulations because functions specified in the Regulations lay within the scope of reference of a local self-government body and cannot be transferred to an economic entity.

However, the claim was dismissed by Chelyabinsk Regional Arbitration Court the Federal Arbitration Court of the Urals District.

Therefore, the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation filed the claims to the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation in the interests of the Prosecutor of the Chelyabinsk region and Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia asking for judicial review of the rulings of the above Courts.

Reference:

1. Part 3 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits combining the functions of local self-government bodies and economic entities.

2. Under Sub-Clause 23 Part 1 Article 16 of the Law on Local Self-Government, organization of ceremonial services and maintenance of burial sites are subject to local regulation by town districts. Part 3 Article 17 and Part 1 Article 2 of the above Law specify that local issues should be resolved independently by the population and (or) local self-government bodies.