OREANDA-NEWS. July 19, 2013. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) instructed its regional offices to investigate the incidents of regional protectionism on the markets of sale of alcohol products associated with actions of the authorities of the constituent territories of the Russian Federation.

Regional protectionism in various Russian provinces was the key issue at the session of FAS Expert Council for developing competition on the market of production and sale of ethylene, alcoholic and alcohol products (the Expert Council) on 17 April 2013.

Experts reported that some regions had additional “voluntary” certification of alcohol products brought in from other provinces, which required mandatory purchasing of additional regional mark that must be stuck on the products. Experts stated that regional authorities obligated retail outlets to set a higher mark-up for the brought in alcohol products and make sure that the ratio of local and brought in alcohol products on shelves would be in favour of the regional producers.

The Expert Council proposed that FAS should verify incidents of regional protectionism in the Belgorod, Voronezh, Kemerovo, Samara, Ulyanovsk, Krasnodar regions, the Republics of Bashkortostan, Buryatia, Chuvashia and Udmurtia in terms of compliance with the antimonopoly law.

Should the fact of violating the antimonopoly law be exposed, FAS shall initiate cases on breaching the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” (Article 15, Article 16).