OREANDA-NEWS. April 11, 2013. The Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Tomsk region (Tomsk OFAS Russia) fined the “Savings Bank of Russia” OJSC over three million Rubles (3,499,060 Rubles) for concluding and participating in an agreement restricting competition on the markets of mortgage loans and housing construction. The head of the Tomsk branch of the Bank is fined 20,000 Rubles. The fines are imposed under Part 1 Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations (breaching Paragraph 1 Article 16 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”).

On 20th June 2012, Tomsk City Authority, the “Savings Bank of Russia” OJSC and “MegapolisS” Ltd. concluded a trilateral agreement on cooperation in ensuring housing availability and increasing availability of housing loan mechanisms. Under the agreement, Tomsk City Authority was obligated to assist the “Savings Bank of Russia” OJSC and “MegapolisS” Ltd. in accordance with the established procedures to exercise the rights and honour the obligations specified by the agreement.

Investigating the case, the Commission of Tomsk OFAS Russia established that the market of mortgage loan and residential housing construction in Tomsk and the Tomsk region, are competitive and are not limited to the operations the “Savings Bank of Russia” OJSC and “MegapolisS” Ltd. Tomsk City Authority did not publically announced its intention to conclude agreements with other organizations. As a result, the Commission has concluded that implementing some parts of the Agreement leads to preventing, restricting, eliminating competition since it creates preferential conditions on the market of mortgage loans for the “Savings Bank of Russia” OJSC. It also creates the same exclusive conditions for “MegapolisS” Ltd. on the market of residential housing construction in comparison with other companies rendering the same services but not possessing information about the intention to conclude the agreement, which mean these companies are unable to file an application and claim the right to conclude an agreement for rendering the services.

The “Savings Bank of Russia” OJSC disagreed with the decision of Tomsk OFAS Russia and filed a lawsuit.