OREANDA-NEWS.  October 28, 2014. Moscow District Arbitration Court fully reversed the ruling of the Appeal Court that FAS decision on a cartel on the market of wholesale supplies of table salt was unlawful and forwarded the case for reconsideration to Moscow Arbitration Court.

In April 2013, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) found that “Grocery” Ltd., “TDS” CJSC, “Veles Group” Ltd., “Bryansk Salt” Ltd. and “TDS Rostov” Ltd. violated Clause 3 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

The companies were issued determinations to eliminate antimonopoly violations.

The case was initiated upon an agreement on dividing the market of wholesale supplies of table salt between “Grocery” Ltd. and members of the same group of persons - “TDS” CJSC, “Veles Group” Ltd., “Bryansk Salt” Ltd. and “TDS Rostov” Ltd. The agreement was revealed in the course of an inspection.

The companies did not deny the fact of concluding the agreement but denied the violation of the antimonopoly law explaining that they are not competitors. To substantiate their position, the economic entities submitted copies of various documents to the Court.

“In my opinion, the Court had reasonable doubts with regard to the documents submitted by the claimants. The companies did not mention about their existence to the FAS Commission or the Court of First Instance. At the same time, the Antimonopoly Service presented conclusive evidence of respondents’ involvement in the anticompetitive agreement”, explained the Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Andrey Tenischev.

“TDS” CJSC, “Veles Group” Ltd. and “Bryansk Salt” Ltd. were imposed turnover fines for over 4.3 million RUB.

Reference:

Clause 3 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” defines as cartels and prohibits agreements between competitors – economic entities that sell goods on the same market if such agreements lead or can lead to dividing the market under the geographical principle, volume of sales of purchases, the range of sold goods or the categories of sellers or buyers (customers).