OREANDA-NEWS. November 07, 2014. Moscow Arbitration Court dismissed the claim of “Aquaresource- DV” Ltd. to invalidate FAS decision and determination.

On 19th February 2014 FAS found that “Aquaresource- DV” Ltd., “Taifun” Ltd., and “Kometa” Ltd. violated the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” (Clause 2, Clause 3 Part1, Clause 3 Part 4 Article 11) by creating a cartel to maintain prices at the auctions organized by Primorie regional branch of the Federal Fishery Agency (Rosrybolovstvo) in 2012 to sell the right to conclude a contract on fixing the quotas for catching crabs in Primorie.

FAS also established that these companies concluded an anticompetitive agreement with the Federal Fishery Agency and its Primorie regional branch aimed at restricting competition at auctions.

“Catching aquatic biological resources is of strategic importance for Russia and FAS pays special attention to control compliance with the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” in this field. We work in close cooperation with the law enforcement bodies. Having investigated the antimonopoly case against a cartel in the course of crab auctions, the Investigation Department of the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation in the Primorie region opened three criminal cases under Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and, hopefully, in the near future the cases will go the Court”, said the Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Andrey Tenioschev.

Reference:

Under Clause 2, Clause 3 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” agreements between competitors – economic entities that sell goods on the same market are classified as cartels and are prohibited if such agreements lead or can lead to: increased, decreased, or maintained prices at auctions; dividing the market in accord with the geographic principles, the scope of sales or purchases, the range of goods or the categories of sellers or buyers (customers).

Clause 3 Part 4 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits other agreements between economic entities (except “vertical” agreements that allowed under Article 12 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”) if established that such agreements lead or can lead to restricted competition. Such agreements can include, in particular, agreements on preventing market entry /exit of other economic entities.