OREANDA-NEWS. July 11, 2013. The Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Primorie region (Primorie OFAS Russia) found that the Tariff Department of the Primorie region violated the Federal Law “On Protection on Competition” (Article 15).

Earlier Primorie OFAS Russia received a petition from Petrenko about action of the Tariff Department of the Primorie region that fixed the tariffs for luggage and passenger transportation in 2012 - 2013.

Investigating the case, the Commission of Primorie OFAS Russia established that one of the carriers in Ussuriisk – “Dilizhans” Partnership had not been allowed to transport passengers before December 2012, because the company had not had a license and a contract for regular luggage and passenger transportation. Thus, in 2011 – 2012 “Dilizhans” was unlawfully included in a list of hauliers, which created unreasonable advantage for the company in comparison with its competitors (Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection on Competition”). The Department also agreed that the hauliers, which regularly renewed their vehicle fleets in accordance with their investment programmes, might transport passengers at the maximum tariff (17 Rubles).

Also, in 2013 the Department unreasonably included individual entrepreneurs A. Chernysh, T. Chernysh, N. Chernysh and V. Koren in the list of carriers who had the right to apply the maximum tariff - 17 Rubles, creating preferential conditions for these entrepreneurs. The Commission of Primorie OFAS Russia established that the entrepreneurs did not have investment programmes and programmes for renovating their vehicle fleets, did not incur financial expenses of implementing such programmes, and therefore unreasonably gained additional profit – 3 Rubles per passenger per single trip.

Upon investigating the case, the Commission of Primorie OFAS Russia concluded that actions of the Tariff Department of the Primorie region violated Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection on Competition” and issued a determination to stop violating the antimonopoly law.

“Both the carriers who misled the Department and the Tariff Department that failed to verify the documents submitted by the carriers are in fault in this case. Hopefully the decision on the case made by Primorie OFAS Russia will help the Department and the carriers to avoid similar mistakes in the future”, commented Deputy Head of Primorie OFAS Russia, Viktor Tryakin.