OREANDA-NEWS. November 10, 2011. The 9th Arbitration Appeal Court upheld the judgment of Moscow Arbitration Court regarding legitimacy and determination of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) on the case against the Federal Customs Service (FTS Russia), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

On 25th January 2011, the FAS Commission found that FTS Russia violated Clauses 2 and 6 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

The FAS Commission concluded that FTS Russia unreasonably prevented activities of two economic entities “Tamozhennaya Karta” Ltd. and “Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd. as coordinators of customs cards issuing and granted priority access to information for one of these economic entities (“Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd.).

The grounds for initiating the case against FTS Russia: a petition of “Tamozhennaya Karta” Ltd. about unreasonable refusals of customs bodies to accept bank cards issued within the payment system organised by the above coordinator to pay customs charges.

Investigating the case, the FAS Commission found that actions of customs bodies were based on an internal document (an order) issued by FTS Russia, which prohibited to accept the cards for payment before coordinators successfully tested their informational interaction with the software package installed at customs offices.

When the order was made, two competing economic entities exercised the coordinating functions - “Tamozhennaya Karta” Ltd. and “Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd. FTS Russia justified the testing by certain changes to the Customs Code of the Russian Federation coming into force, according to which customs payments should be received to the account of the Federal Treasury rather than the accounts of customs bodies. FTS Russia also explained its actions by the new procedures for filling in accounting documents for paying customs charges.

The FAS Commission decided that the above circumstances did not sufficiently justify the Order.

Also in the opinion of the FAS Commission, documents and information on the case file show that FTS Russia provided information regarding testing conditions and procedures to “Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd. on a priority basis, delaying testing of “Tamozhennaya Karta” Ltd.

FTS Russia was issued a determination to stop the antimonopoly violation and to exercise actions towards protecting competition.

Currently FTS Russia continues executing the determination, according to which the company must, in particular, every quarter in 2011 and 2012 submit to FAS information about all incidents when customs bodies refused to accept the customs cards of both coordinators - “Tamozhennaya Karta” Ltd. and “Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd. and the reasons for such refusals.

FTS Russia filed a lawsuit challenging FAS decision and determination.

On 2nd August 2011, Moscow Arbitration Court dismissed the claim of FTS Russia and confirmed legitimacy and reasonableness of the decision and determination of the FAS Commission.

On 2nd November 2011, FTS Russia appealed the judgment of the Arbitration Court of First Instance but the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court did not allow the appeal.

Reference:

Clauses 2 and 6 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibit federal executive bodies to:

Unreasonably prevent activities of economic entities;

Give priority access to information to an economic entity.