OREANDA-NEWS.  October 23, 2012. The 9th Arbitration Appeal Court agreed with the arguments of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia). It reversed the judgment of Moscow Arbitration Court on a case on collusion between pharmaceutical companies and passed a new judicial act, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.   

On 15th November 2011, FAS found that “PROTEK” Implementation Centre ” CJSC, “ROSRA” CJSC and “R-Pharm” CJSC violated Clause 2 Part 1 Article 11 of No.135-FZ Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” of 26th July 2006 by participating in bid-rigging collusion at auctions for purchasing drugs, organized by the Ministry of Health Care and Social Development.

As a result of the agreement, the companies helped each other to win by failure to appear at auctions or passive conduct at ten auction lots, which enabled them to conclude government contracts for supplying drugs without reducing the initial (maximum) price for over three billion Rubles.

The main prove of the cartel agreement was the conduct of the bidders. The Appeal Court found such manner of proving appropriate.

“The Court ruling is an important precedent not only for considering other bid-rigging cases associated with the auctions organized by the Ministry of Health Care and Social Development in 2009-2010 that are now under a judicial review, but also for building-up evidentiary basis for all similar cases in general. The Court agreed that a conduct model can be a cartel evidence”, explained Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovskiy.