OREANDA-NEWS. February 05, 2013. The Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District agreed with the arguments of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) and upheld the ruling of the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court in Moscow on a bid-rigging case concerning an auction for procurement of drugs for the Ministry of Health Care and Social Development (in breach of Clause 2 Part 1 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

As a result of the agreement, the companies secured each other’s victory by failure to appear at the auction or passive conduct through ten auction lots, which enabled them to conclude the government contracts for supplying drugs without reducing the initial (maximum) price for the sum over 3 billion Rubles.

“It is an important judicial precedent. One of the main evidence of bid-rigging is behavior of the bidders. The fact that the Courts of two instances agreed with the FAS position states that such type of evidence may and must be used by the antimonopoly bodies”, emphasized the Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Alexander Kinyov.