OREANDA-NEWS. April 03, 2013. The Arbitration Court of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region allowed the claim of the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in St Petersburg (St Petersburg OFAS Russia) to partially invalidate the law on providing items of immovable property, owned by St Petersburg, for construction and reconstruction.

According to St Petersburg OFAS Russia, providing land plots by a strategic investor without competitive bidding is in breach of the Land Code of the Russian Federation. Under the normative act, the criterion for providing land plots without competitive bidding is putting together land plots and a preliminary approval of the item location rather than the status of a person acting as an investor.

The Arbitration Court agreed with the arguments put forward by St Petersburg OFAS Russia. Under the ruling of the Arbitration Court, some provisions of the Law of St Petersburg “On the Procedures for Providing Items of Immovable Property, Owned by St Petersburg, for Construction and Reconstruction”, passed in June 2004, were invalidated due to non-conformity with the Law “On Protection of Competition”, and the Law on Investment Activities in the Russian Federation and the Land Code of the Russian Federation.

“In our opinion, the decision is very important although not final. Conditions should be created in St Petersburg to provide items of immovable property and land plots transparently”, pointed out the Head of St Petersburg OFAS Russia, Alexander Belyaev.