OREANDA-NEWS. April 08, 2013. The 9th Arbitration Appeal Court upheld the judgment of Moscow Arbitration Court and supported the FAS decision that the Federal Tariff Service had violated the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” (Part 1 Article 15).

According to FAS Russia, lack of actions by the Federal Tariff Service prevented access of “Volgogradoblelektrosbyt” Ltd. (“VOES” Ltd.) to wholesale trading with electric power.

The Federal Tariff Service violated the law when it failed to consider disagreements between the company and the Regional Tariffs Office of Volgograd Regional Authority with regard to proposals of “VOES” Ltd. to include generation and supply of electric power within the Unified Energy System of Russia in the consolidated balance forecast for the Volgograd region in 2010.

The FAS Commission concluded that the Federal Tariff Service could have restricted company’s access to the trading system on the wholesale market, the consequence of which was depriving “VOES” Ltd. of its status of provider of last resort.

Having investigated the case, the FAS Commission found that lack of actions by the Federal Tariff Service violated the antimonopoly law.

The Federal Tariff Service disagreed with the FAS decisions and judgments of the Court of First Instance and filed a lawsuit to the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court to invalidate them. In its turn, the Court dismissed the claim and upheld FAS decision.