OREANDA-NEWS. January 08, 2014. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) found that the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation violated the antimonopoly law by issuing an order that set excessive requirements to tachographs, which can result in restricting competition (in breach of Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”).

The antimonopoly case was initiated upon the Ministry of transport issuing an order that approved the requirements to tachographs installed on vehicle, M2, N2 and M3 categories. From 1st April 2013 those vehicles had to be equipped with the new-type tachographs that include a removable element of cryptographic information protection tool, certified by Russian Federal Security service.

The FAS Commission established that at the period of the investigation only one agent operated on the market, manufacturing a cryptographic information protection tool devised and certified by “Atlas Cart” CJSC before the requirements were issued. The costs of a cryptographic information protection tool that meets the requirements specified in the order exceeds 10,000 RUB, and the service life is three years.

The Russian-made tachograph does not comply with the international standards and cannot be used in the European countries, while the order limits Russian resident in the use of tachographs that meet the international AETR standards.

Therefore, the requirements set by the order of the Ministry of Transport are excessive and considerably increase the costs of manufacturers of road vehicles, road carriers and manufacturers of tachographs.

Moreover, the FAS Commission established that the order can result in restricting competition since manufacturers of tachographs are made dependent on the monopolist (the only producer of a cryptographic information protection tool), and entry to the market of a cryptographic information protection tool depend on its developer (“Atlas Cart” CJSC) because a new market agent must obtain the key information to support interoperability of cryptographic information protection facilities.

Upon completing the investigation, FAS will issue a determination to the Ministry of Transport to stop violating the antimonopoly law by removing the excessive requirements from the order.