OREANDA-NEWS. April 28, 2012. The FAS Commission found that the Federal Customs Service violated Clause 2 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.   

The FAS Commission concluded that the Federal Customs Service unreasonably prevented activities of “Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd. as a coordinator of issuing customs cards.

The case was initiated upon a petition of “Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd., which stated that in November 2011 the Federal Customs Service stopped accepting customs payment cards, issued under the payment system organized by petitioner.

In course of the case investigation, the FAS Commission discovered that “Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd. had stopped accepting customs cards because server equipment, providing communications between customs bodies and coordinators, was transferred to a new data processing centre.

As explained by the Federal Customs Service, the equipment was transferred because an inspection showed that additional security was required to protect information processed by the Federal Customs Service.

The FAS Commission considered that the above circumstances were not sufficient to justify the Federal Customs Service restricting activities of coordinators and possibility of using one of methods of paying customs charges by participants of foreign economic activities.

Information on the case file allows reaching a conclusion that the Federal Customs Service could have ensured continuity of cards acceptance, in particular, informing “Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd. in advance about the planned works.

At the time of passing a decision on the case, the work of the payment system organized by “Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd. was practically terminated.

According to the FAS Commission, documents and information submitted in course of the case investigation show that the Federal Customs Service and its structural units deliberately delayed resuming the work of the payment system.

At the same time the only competitor of “Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd. – “Tamozhennaya Karta” Ltd. carried out the necessary measures due to transferring the equipment, in particular, with involvement of the Federal Customs Service and restored performance capacity of its payment system within a week after being notified about the works.

The Federal Customs Service was issued a determination to stop violating the antimonopoly law and to exercise actions aimed a protecting competition.

Within the past three years the FAS Commission already issued two determinations to the Federal Customs Service to ensure competitive conditions for activities of coordinators. On the cases, when such determinations were issued FAS found that the Federal Customs Service violated the antimonopoly law preventing activities of a competitor of “Tamozhennaya Platyozhnaya Sistema” Ltd. - “Tamozhennaya Karta” Ltd.

Reference:

Clause 2 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits federal executive bodies to unreasonably prevent activities of economic entities.