OREANDA-NEWS. March 27, 2014. The Moscow Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in (Moscow OFAS Russia) fined “Kommunalny Sector” Ltd., “Petrovsky Park” Ltd. and “PromStroiTorg” Ltd. for a cartel at an auction for snow removal. The total size of the fines reached 79.4 million RUB.

The companies concluded and implemented a cartel agreement at an auction for removing snow in the Airport district, Moscow. The initial (maximum) price was over 105 million RUB.

OFAS experts established that commercial organization did not compete between each other at the auction and acted in the interests of each other - exchanged information, and used the common IT infrastructure to file price bids.

According to the Head of Moscow OFAS Russia, Rachik Petrosyan, combating cartel agreements is one of OFAS priorities since it is a violation with the most dangerous consequences, adversely affecting both consumers and the budget.

“Since the beginning 2013, Moscow OFAS Russia has exposed and proved cartels at over 80 e-auctions for the total amount over 1 billion RUB and identified more than 95 companies participating in these cartels”, said the Head of Moscow OFAS Russia.

Reference:

Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violation establishes liability for taking part in anticompetitive agreements – administrative fines from 10% to 50% from the auction price.