OREANDA-NEWS. December 16, 2013. The 9th Arbitration Appeal Court dismissed a claim of “Regional Network Information Centre” CJSC (“RSITs” CJSC) on reconsidering a ruling of the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court that pronounced legitimacy of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) due to new circumstances.

On 12th July 2011, FAS made a decision on the case against registrars of domain names in the RF zones in the Internet: FAS found that “RSITs” CJSC and “RSITs” Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization violated Articles 11 and 14 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

In violation of Part 1 Article 14 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, “RSITs” CJSC registered for itself over 70,000 domain names in the.РФ zone that must have been divided between applicants under an equal access principle. Also by concluding and participating in the agreement, “RSITs” CJSC and “RSITs” Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization were imposing disadvantageous or irrelevant to the construct subject conditions upon their customers – physical and legal persons, that wished to register for themselves domain names in the .РФ zone.

Under the rules of the Coordination Centre of the national domain in the Internet, one registrar (out of 21) could register no more than 4800 domains per hour. “RSITs” CJSC concluded client contracts with several other registrars that registered domain names for “RSITs” CJSC as the administrator.

FAS also established that “RSITs” CJSC and “RSITs” Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization concluded an agreement, under which domain names were put at auctions. Unlawful proceeds from the auctions were distributed between “RSITs” CJSC and “RSITs” Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization.

“RSITs” CJSC disagreed with the decision of the Antimonopoly Service and filed a lawsuit. In April 2013, the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation overruled the ruling of the Cassation Court and upheld the ruling of the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court on transferring unlawfully obtained income to the federal budget – over 239 million RUB. On 30th September 2013 “RSITs” CJSC paid the fine in full.

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“Regional Network Information Centre” (RU-CENTER) CJSC is the first in Russia and the largest professional domain registrar and one of the leading hosting providers.