OREANDA-NEWS. September 20, 2011. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) initiated a case against the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation upon the signs of violating Part 1 Article 15 Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The case was initiated upon a petition of the “Savings Bank of Russia” OJSC, where the credit organisation had stated that the Ministry of Defence had created unreasonable advantages to “VTB” Bank” OJSC in banking activities.

Investigating the petition, FAS established that in August 2011 several defence companies sent letters to their subsidiaries and paternalized organisations, where they required to switch to “VTB” Bank” OJSC as a matter of urgency and close all accounts opened in other credit organisations.

The wording of the letters indicates that they were forwarded following instructions from the Ministry of Defence.

According to FAS, such actions of the Ministry of Defence can result in restricting competition on the market of banking services because they create unreasonable advantages for “VTB” Bank” OJSC in comparison with other credit organisations, prevent banking activities by other credit organisations as well as set unreasonable restrictions for defence companies with regard to selecting a credit organisation for banking services.

Thus, FAS Russia has found that actions of the Ministry of Defence have the signs of violating Part 1 Article 15 Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

The date of case consideration will be fixed within 15 days after the case was initiated.

Reference:

Part 1 Article 15 Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits federal executive bodies to adopt acts and (or) exercise actions (omissions) that lead or can lead to preventing, restricting, eliminating competition, except adopting acts and (or) exercising actions (omissions) that are provided for by the federal laws.