OREANDA-NEWS. August 12, 2011. Moscow Arbitration Court upheld the decision of the Moscow Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (OFAS Russia) that “ASHAN” Ltd. and “ATAK” Ltd. violated the antimonopoly law, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

On 3rd November 2010, the Commission of Moscow OFAS Russia found that “ASHAN” Ltd. and “ATAK” Ltd. (trade networks) violated Clause 1 Part 1 Article 13 of the Federal Law “On the Basis of State Regulation of Trading Activities in the Russian Federation”.

The case against the trade network was opened upon an initiative of Moscow OFAS Russia.

Investigating earlier a case against bread plants that were suspected in price collusion in summer 2010, the Commission of Moscow OFAS Russia discovered that conditions of the contracts concluded by the bread-makers with trade networks contravened the law on trade.

Moscow OFAS Russia initiated a new case bringing the trade networks - “ASHAN” Ltd. and “ATAK” Ltd. – as the respondents.

Having analysed the obtained materials, OFAS established the fact of networks creating discriminatory conditions on the food product markets. The trade networks formed discriminatory conditions by:

- using penalties for breaching contract conditions as a discriminatory tool against the economic entities supplying food products to the trade networks as a result of imposing penalties only for the counteragents of trade networks that were not proportional to violations of contract conditions, evading negotiations to reconsider such contract conditions;

- creating entry barriers for economic entities supplying food products to trade networks by charging a premium for expanding distribution markets;

- including discounts in supply contract conditions in the periods of buying goods at special prices and special periods used for promotions in order to attract consumer attention (advertising), and allowing to reduce the price for supplied goods in arbitrary chosen periods;

- lack of transparency in selecting counteragents by trade networks;

- absence of a unified approach to the conditions for selecting counteragents to conclude contracts for supply of food products, and unified essential conditions of such contracts with suppliers of similar products.

As a result, Moscow OFAS Russia found that “ASHAN” and “ATAK” trade networks violated Clause 1 Part 1 Article 13 of law on trade and issued mandatory determinations to the violators.

The trade networks disagreed with the decision of the antimonopoly body and filed a lawsuit.

On 5th August 2011, Moscow Arbitration Court heard the arguments of the parties, dismissed the claim of the companies and confirmed legitimacy and reasonableness of the decision made by Moscow OFAS Russia.

“Undoubtedly, the court ruling in favour of OFAS is our huge victory as the case against the trade networks was not simple. Earlier we have already emphasised that this time Moscow OFAS Russia had to deal with passive involvement of the persons whose interests were infringed. It is important that this is the first case on the law on trade considered by our Office. Hopefully, representatives of the trade sector will give serious consideration to legitimacy of their actions and fair rules of doing business”, commented the Court ruling the Head of Moscow OFAS Russia, Mr. Vladimir Yefimov.