OREANDA-NEWS. October 16, 2012. The Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District accepted the arguments of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) and reversed the judgment of Moscow Arbitration Court and the ruling of the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

On 27th June 2011, FAS found that “R-Pharm” CJSC and “Irvin 2” Ltd. violated Clause 2 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” by taking part in bid-rigging collusion at an auction for buying drugs.

The Antimonopoly Service initiated a case based on the materials forwarded from the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation. Investigating the case, FAS established that “R-Pharm” CJSC and “Irvin 2” Ltd. had concluded and implemented an agreement that resulted in maintaining prices at an open auction for supplying drugs for the state needs. The agreement concerned “Mycophenolate mofetil” used for transplantation of organs and tissues.

The initial price of the auction lot was around 100 million Rubles. One of the main pieces of evidence on the case was the conduct of the auction bidders, when the first participant of the agreement - “R-Pharm” CJSC - failed to appear at the auction, which enabled the second bidder, allowed to take part in the auction, - “Irvin 2” Ltd. - to be able to supply goods at the maximum price.

“This case is a precedent”, pointed out Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovsky. “It has a unique significance for the Antimonopoly Service, that recently has passed a number of similar decisions regarding large pharmaceutical companies upon the facts of bid-rigging. Moreover, the ruling of the Cassation Court plays an important role also for the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Interior that is currently investigating a criminal case under Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation initiated upon a fact of restricting competition at auctions”.