OREANDA-NEWS. July 23, 2013. Moscow Arbitration Court and the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court pronounced legitimacy of the decision issued by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) regarding the Committee of the Bryansk Region on Agriculture and Food Products.

On 5th July 2012, the FAS Commission found that the Committee of the Bryansk Region on Agriculture and Food Products restricted competition on the market of beef cattle breeding.

Earlier FAS Commission established that in 2011 the Committee had made changes to the procedures for granting subsidies to agricultural producers and peasant holdings and farms under a long-term target programme on “Developing Beef Cattle Breeding in the Bryansk Region (2009-2012)”. It resulted in changing the criteria for selecting programme participants and considerably reduced the number of participants (from 60 to 13), which means competition restriction.

On 6th March 2013 Moscow Arbitration Court supported the FAS decision, and on 9th July 2013 the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court arrived to the same conclusion.

“The rulings passed by two Courts confirmed the conclusion of the FAS Commission that changing the criteria for selecting Progaramme participants and, as a consequence, reducing the number of Programme participants restricted competition on the market of beef cattle breeding in the Bryansk region. FAS will undertake all necessary measures of antimonopoly control to prevent developing similar situations in other Russian provinces”, said Deputy Head of the FAS Department for Control over Chemical Industry and Agro-Industry Complex, Irina Epifanova.