OREANDA-NEWS. October 27, 2011. The Commission of Kursk OFAS Russia found that “Rostelecom” OJSC (in the person of its Kursk branch) abused its market dominance (Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”) by failure to execute its responsibilities for providing informational and reference services, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The Commission of Kursk OFAS Russia established that “Rostelecom” OJSC created conditions that forced consumers who called “09” free Reference Service, to turn to the fee-based reference services. Long (up to 12 minutes) waiting time for a response from an operator of the free Reference Service, failure to provide information even if full data about the subscriber were given (name, address), absence of an alternative possibility to find out the telephone number of a required subscriber due to failure of “Rostelecom” OJSC to exercise its duty to annually publish telephone reference books (both printed and electronic versions) inevitably forced customers to use the fee-based Reference Service of “Rostelecom” OJSC.

The antimonopoly body also exposed numerous incidents when “Rostelecom” OJSC unreasonably billed customers for a paid informational service that was not provided, in the absence of information where the reference service was actually provided — whether a person who approached the Reference Service received the information s/he was interested in. “Rostelecom” OJSC only clarified such data and recalculated the bills if consumers submitted written statements.

Kursk OFAS Russia issued a determination to “Rostelecom” OJSC to stop the antimonopoly violations, according to which the monopolist is obligated to eliminate the violations reveled by the antimonopoly body and do not create conditions that force users of telephone communications services in the Kursk region to use the fee-based Reference Service of “Rostelecom” OJSC.

“By finding that “Rostelecom” OJSC violated the antimonopoly law, Kursk OFAS Russia intends to suppress unlawful actions of the largest telephony provider towards imposing fee-based reference services upon customers. Taking advantage of the issues of informational services not being regulated by the existing law, “Rostelecom” OJSC effectively created conditions, when customers were forced to use the fee-based Reference Service of “Rostelecom” OJSC in order to obtain information about the telephone number of a subscriber of telephone communications. Prior to making the decision, OFAS analyzed numerous documents on a large-scale basis, and members of staff tried to call “09” free Information-and-Reference Service of “Rostelecom” OJSC and verify the circumstances indicated in numerous written and oral complaints form consumers. These measures are a logical consequences of the situation developed in the Kursk region, when we received many petitions and complaints regarding unfair actions of “Rostelecom” OJSC”, commented the Head of Kursk OFAS Russia, Yuri Komov.