OREANDA-NEWS. September 01, 2011. The Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District confirmed the fact of cartel (collusion) formed by “Svyazspetsproekt” Ltd., “Innovatsii Tekhnologii Service” Ltd., “SMS” Ltd., “Moslift” Municipal State Unitary Enterprise, “Domophon-Service” OJSC, “Ai-Video” Ltd. and “Vector+” CJSC, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

In spring 2010 Moscow organised an auction for the governmental contracts for operating sub-systems for video- (tele-) surveillance and emergency communications line of the city security system in the Administrative Districts of Moscow.

Several companies bid at the auction, including “Svyazspetsproekt” Ltd., “Innovatsii Tekhnologii Service” Ltd., “SMS” Ltd., “Moslift” Municipal State Unitary Enterprise, “Domophon-Service” OJSC, “Ai-Video” Ltd. and “Vector+” CJSC.

Having analysed the auction documentation, Moscow OFAS Russia established that the price of the government contract was reduced by 0.5% from the initial (maximum) price, which is not typical for such auctions.

The antimonopoly body found that the companies violated Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

The violators challenged the decision of Moscow OFAS Russia by filing a lawsuit

The Courts of two instances pronounced legitimacy of the conclusions made by the antimonopoly body.

“Collusion is one of the most dangerous violations. Moscow suffers appreciable damage caused by unlawful actions of economic entities. It is our priority to combat organisations that believe it is right to frustrate competitive bidding”, pointed out the Head of Moscow OFAS Russia, Vladimir Yefimov.