OREANDA-NEWS. August 09, 2013. Kostroma Regional Arbitration Court drew a line in a dispute between the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Kostroma region (Kostroma OFAS Russia) and the Department of Kostroma Town Authority for Land Use Planning, Urban Lands, Urban Development, Architecture and Municipal Property. The Court pronounced that the auction for the contracts for placing advertising structures had been organized breaching the antimonopoly law.

In December 2012 Kostroma OFAS Russia received a complaint from “Sea Port Service – Baltic” Ltd. about actions of an auction organizer - Kostroma Town Authority and the Auction Commission in the course of organizing an auction for the contracts to install and operate advertising structures included in municipal immovable property of Kostroma Town on 28th November 2012.

In the opinion of “Sea Port Service – Baltic” Ltd., the auction was organized in breach of the current law, which prevented the company winning the auction. In the course of the investigation, OFAS revealed that the organizers violated the procedures for concluding contracts based on the auction outcomes: they failed to present the Protocol to the auction winner and because of this did not conclude the contract with the winner.

The Protocol allocated the lots that the company won between other auction bidders. The Commission of Kostroma OFAS Russia concluded that under the circumstances the organizer had no reason to classify actions of “Sea Port Service – Baltic” Ltd. as avoidance and, subsequently, deprive the winner of the right to conclude the contracts.

Having considered the arguments of the parties, Kostroma OFAS Russia decided that actions of the auction organizer deprived “Sea Port Service – Baltic” Ltd. of its lawful (established by the auction outcome) right to conclude the contracts for installing and operating advertising structures and the company’s right was transferred to other auction bidders who put the next-to-last price bids.

The Department of Kostroma Town Authority for Land Use Planning, Urban Lands, Urban Development, Architecture and Municipal Property disagreed with the decision of the antimonopoly body and approached Kostroma Regional Arbitration Court. Upon examining the case, however, the Court pronounced legitimacy of the decision made by Kostroma OFAS Russia and upheld it.