OREANDA-NEWS. August 08, 2013. The 9th Arbitration Appeal Court supported the decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) and Moscow Arbitration Court with regard to the Ministry of the Nizhniy Novgorod Region for State Property and Land Resources that had organized an auction for leasing land plots.

On 27th November 2012, the FAS Commission found that the Ministry of the Nizhniy Novgorod Region for State Property and Land Resources violated Article 17 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. FAS issued a determination to the Ministry to abolish the results of the auction for leasing 14 state-owned land plots in the Nizhniy Novgorod region. All plots with the total area 4,532,179 sq.m. were included in a single lot.

Under the Land Code of the Russian Federation, auctions for leasing land plots for integrated development for the purposes of residential housing construction must take place for each plot that has a Land Registry title plan.

According to the Commission, the auction organizer also failed to disclose the requirements for integrated development of land plots, which made the auction winner to refuse to implement its proposals and the auction organizer did not approve the winner’s proposals.

The Ministry of the Nizhniy Novgorod Region for State Property and Land Resources challenged the FAS decision at two court instances; however, both Moscow Arbitration Court and the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court dismissed the claim of the regional authority.

“The ruling of the Appeal Court proves that the Ministry’s actions restricted access of economic entities to participation in the auction and violated the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, pointed out the Head of FAS Department for Control over Housing & Utilities Sector, Construction and Natural Resources, Vadim Solovyov.