OREANDA-NEWS. July 24, 2013. The Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Leningrad Region (Leningrad OFAS Russia) found that “Intertorg” Trading House” Ltd. (“Narodnaya SemYa” and “IDEA” trading networks) violated Article 13 of the Federal Law “On the Fundamental Principles of State Regulation of Trading Activities in the Russian Federation” – preventing entry of economic entities to the market.

“Altaiskaya Krupa” Trading House” Ltd. complained to Leningrad OFAS Russia about “Intertorg” Trading House” Ltd. The petitioner asked the trading network on the basis of which criteria it selected its suppliers. The response given by “Intertorg” Trading House” Ltd. showed that supplier selection criteria were controversial and gave advantageous conditions to the suppliers that had already concluded contracts with the trading network.

Having investigated the case, the antimonopoly body established that the “Regulations on the procedures for considering commercial offers from counteragents” did not specify numeric, clear to suppliers criteria, which prevented compliance with the requirements and created advantages for the suppliers that already had experience of working with the network.

“This is the first case for our Office of holding a trading network liable for creating discriminatory conditions. Earlier we fined “Pyaterochka” for failure to submit information and “Ashan” for non-ethical advertising. We will continue monitoring compliance of trading networks with the law”, emphasized the Head of Leningrad OFAS Russia Vadim Vladimirov.