OREANDA-NEWS. September 27, 2011. The Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation reversed the rulings of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District to reconsider upon discovery of new facts the ruling of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District, which upheld FAS decision that the Forestry Office for the Moscow Region and Moscow (Mosleskhoz) violated Part 2 Article 17 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition (restricting bidding entry of interested persons), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Mosleskhoz set restrictions to the persons willing to file the bids for forestry auctions that were not provided for by the law:

- accepting the bids for forestry auction by officers of Mosleskhoz only one day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.;

- the auction bids could only be filed in person, according to a preliminary registration, which was carried out by officers of Mosleskhoz (alternative methods of bids filing, for example, by mail, were not allowed);

- neither notices about the auctions, nor the auction documentation specified the procedures for accepting the bids in the part of a preliminary registration of the bidders.

As a result of the above restrictions, the time allocated for accepting the bids was not enough to accept the bids from all persons willing to file them, which was confirmed by numerous complaints from legal entities and physical persons.

The antimonopoly violations resulted in unefficient use of limited natural resources by the state (in the person of Mosleskhoz), and selling the lots at a reduced price, absolutely not matching the market price, as a result of which the federal budget lost huge sums of money following the outcomes of the forestry auctions. For instance, on some lots the plots of land around Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway were sold at the price below 1000 Rubles per hundred sq. m.

One of the auction winners – “ProInvestCapital” Ltd. asked the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District to reconsider the court ruling upon discovery of new facts, namely: one the persons, who was deprived of a possibility to file an auction bid, refused judicial defence (“LesResource” Ltd.). However, the ruling of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court stated that when one of the persons whose rights were infringed refused judicial defence, it does not abolish the fact of violating the antimonopoly law.

“We are pleased that the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court drew a line in this case. Litigation and judicial proceedings concerning the auctions have been dragging for just short of four years”, said Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Anrdey Tsarikovsky. ‘Hopefully, this case will serve as a good lesson for the auction organisers and help prevent violations of forestry and antimonopoly law in the future”.