OREANDA-NEWS. November 06, 2012. The Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District upheld the rulings of the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court and Moscow Arbitration Court that “MRSK Volga” OJSC violated the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” (Clause 3 Part 1 Article 10). Thus, the Courts of three instances confirmed legitimacy of the decision made by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) as far back as in October 2011, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

“MRSK Volga” OJSC violated the law by forcing “RUSENERGOSBYT” Ltd. to use additional amount of services for transmitting electric power over requested by the company, since “MRSK Volga” OJSC failed to sign additional agreements on excluding the relevant delivery points from the contracts. Such actions by “MRSK Volga” OJSC infringe the right of “RUSENERGOSBYT” Ltd. for decreasing the scope of services for electric power transmission and, accordingly, the overall costs of those services.

Making a decision, the FAS Commission was governed by Clauses 18 and 24 of the Rules of Non-Discriminatory Access to the services for electric power transmission and rendering these services, approved by No.861 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 27th December 2004. According to these norms, network organizations have no right to impose additional quantities of transmission services in excess of requested by a consumer, and can only request (in the absence of technical possibilities) to decrease the contract values.

“One of the most widespread violations of the antimonopoly law is imposing disadvantageous conditions upon consumers. In the case in question, the network company refused to decrease the scope of services in spite of repeated applications from a consumer. FAS exposed the violation and issued a determination to restore the infringed rights of the complainant”, pointed out the Head of FAS Department for Control over Electric Power Industry, Vitaly Korolyov.