OREANDA-NEWS. March 06, 2012. The Commission of the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in Moscow (Moscow OFAS Russia) established the fact of concluding an anticompetitive agreement (Article 16 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”) by Moscow Regional Energy Commission, “MOESK” OJSC, “Expert Tarif Energo” Ltd., “Academ Finance Analitik” Ltd., “Universal Group” Ltd., “Tarif Energo Consult” Ltd., reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Before opening the case, OFAS carried out a “dawn raid” – simultaneously starting surprise inspections of five organizations suspected in conspiring. The inspected organizations included “Expert Tarif Energo” Ltd., “Academ Finance Analitik” Ltd., “Universal Group” Ltd. that are mainly render consulting services. The services of the companies were used by Moscow Regional Energy Commission and “MOESK” OJSC.

“MOESK” OJSC commissioned expert examinations of tariffs to the expert organizations, and Moscow Regional Energy Commission used them for “independent” expert examination of the same tariffs.

Moscow Regional Energy Commission could not have been unaware of the conflict of interest because in the tariff applications of the regulated organizations, the costs included services of the above organizations. An indication of participation of Moscow Regional Energy Commission in the agreement was that in 2008 - 2011 it selected the same independent expert to analyze tariff issues for fixing the fee for technological connection. In most incidents the works were carried out by “Expert Tarif Energo” Ltd.

Although Moscow Regional Energy Commission stopped exercising the agreement and actively cooperated in investigation of all case circumstances, Moscow OFAS Russia issued a determination to the regulator aimed at creating conditions that exclude such violations in the future.

“Pricing should be such that nobody can doubt that the fee is justified. “Independent” experts engaged in analyzing whether the tariffs are justified must be truly independent”, commented Deputy Head of Moscow OFAS Russia, Dmitry Tyotushkin.