OREANDA-NEWS. August 11, 2014. The Federal Arbitration Court of the Far East District fully reversed the rulings of Appeal Court invalidating the decision of Primorie OFAS on a bid-rigging case at an auction for allocating crab-catching quotas.

The open auction on fixing quotas for catching opilio crab was organized in November 2010 under the guidance of Primorie Regional Office of the Federal Fishery Agency. Upon the fact of the auction, the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation in the Far East District conducted an investigation and transferred the case materials to the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Primorie region (Primorie OFAS).

The OFAS Commission established that several bidders – “TD DMP”, “PRK” and “Aquaresours” – concluded an agreement, the consequence of which was maintaining prices at the auction. Therefore, the companies violated the antimonopoly law that prohibits competition-restricting agreements on increasing, reducing or maintaining prices at auctions and tenders.

On 18th December 2013, Primorie Regional Arbitration Court found the decision of Primorie OFAS Russia unlawful. The 5th Arbitration Appeal Court of the Primorie Region upheld the judgment of the lower Court Instance.

Insisting on its position, Primorie antimonopoly body appealed the rulings at the Federal Arbitration Court of the Far East District, and won the case.

Reference:

On 16th July 2014, the Federal Court of the Far East District fully abolished the judgment of the Court of First Instance and the ruling of the Appeal Court in full and transferred the case for reconsideration. “TD DMP” Ltd., “PRK” Ltd. and “Aquaresours” Ltd. are pronounced infringers of Clause 2 Part 1 Article 11 of the Law “On Protection of Competition”.