OREANDA-NEWS. November 21, 2013. Moscow Arbitration Court fully dismissed the claim of “Argus-Spektr” CJSC to invalidate an order of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) on an unscheduled on-site inspection of the claimant and all actions undertaken in the course of the inspection and the act drawn upon the outcome of the inspection.

From 18th February to 17th May 2013, FAS carried out an unscheduled inspection of “Argus-Spektr” CJSC. Upon the results of the inspection, FAS identified some signs of “Argus-Spektr” CJSC concluding prohibited anticompetitive “vertical” agreements with its dealers (Part 2 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”), and signs of anticompetitive agreements with regional branches of the Ministry of Emergencies of the Russian Federation aimed at pushing economic entities that were not dealers of “Argus-Spektr” CJSC away from the market of special fire-fighting equipment (Article 16 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”).

“Argus-Spektr” CJSC is a private vendor of “Strelets-Monitoring” hardware and software system which transfer a fire signal through a special communication channel to a control panel of a fire-prevention system. In the course of the investigation, FAS received numerous petitions that in some Russian regions “Argus-Spektr” CJSC through its dealer network monopolized the service for connecting protected facilities to the desks of fire-fighting units, and effectively got control over a special communications channel, provided to the Ministry of Emergencies by the Ministry of Defence to transmit fire-alarm signals.

To prevent initiating an antimonopoly case, “Argus-Spektr” CJSC chose the tactics of out-and-out appealing all FAS actions, undertaken in the course of the inspection, to various supervisory and judicial authorities. FAS officers were accused of falsifying orders issued by the Head of FAS, industrial espionage, threats to the national security, and abuse of office. Having consolidated the cases, Moscow Arbitration Court considered all arguments of “Argus-Spektr” CJSC and dismissed the charges against FAS as unreasonable.

“The case clearly proves how efficient our sudden on-site inspections are. Violators of the antimonopoly law are prepared to put forward the most absurd accusations against FAS only to avoid liability”, pointed out the Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Andrey Tenischev.