OREANDA-NEWS. The Joint Commission of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (the Bank of Russia) found that “URALSIB” OJSC and “Volkswagen Bank Rus” Ltd. violated Part 4 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

The case against the banks was initiated upon the outcome of FAS investigating a notification on concluding a Contract on Cooperation between the Banks.

As follows from the explanations given by the banks, the Agreement was concluded so “URALSIB” OJSC can open accounts for physical persons to deposit loans from “Volkswagen Bank Rus” Ltd. and complete account transactions since “Volkswagen Bank Rus” Ltd. does not have a license for attracting funds from physical persons to accounts. Under the agreement opening and servicing accounts in “URALSIB” OJSC is free for the borrowers of “Volkswagen Bank Rus” Ltd.

At the same time, the agreement obligates “URALSIB” OJSC not to recommend and create conditions for the clients of “Volkswagen Bank Rus” Ltd. to use the services of “URALSIB” OJSC to repay loans to “Volkswagen Bank Rus” Ltd. as well as for any other purposes, including purchasing motor vehicles.

Investigating the fact, FAS established that when concluding the agreement the banks were potential competitors on the market of auto loans for physical persons. In the process of executing the agreements the banks became real competitors.

Taking this circumstance into account, the Commission concluded that by entering into the agreement under such conditions “URALSIB” OJSC refused to carry out certain independent actions on the market in the future - to compete with “Volkswagen Bank Rus” Ltd. for the customers attracted the latter.

Having analyzed all case circumstances, the Commission found that the arrangements made under the agreement cannot be allowed under Part 1 Article 31 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. At the same time, in the Commission's opinion, the agreement in general can be fully allowed if such arrangements are not included in it.

Therefore, FAS found that “URALSIB” OJSC and “Volkswagen Bank Rus” Ltd. violated Part 4 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

As the violation was not eliminated at the time of making the decision, the Commission also decided to issue a determination to terminate the anticompetitive arrangements by excluding the relevant provisions from the agreement.