OREANDA-NEWS. November 20, 2014. During three months of the work of the Hot Line” on increased prices, FAS received 2268 petitions of which 2138 were complaints on increased retail prices on food products.

Majority of complaints concern growing poultry prices (615), fruits and vegetables are on the second place (468).

The third position by the number of complaints is taken by beef (249) and pork (205). Individuals also complain about increased prices for dairy products – 406 complaints (mostly cheeses), sausages (101) and fish (75).

FAS received 162 complaints regarding increased wholesale prices: fish (43), poultry (27) and dairy products (20).

Along with analyzing complaints from individuals, FAS monitors weekly wholesale ex-works prices for socially important food products under special economic measures: beef, poultry, pork, milk and dairy products, butter, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onion and apples.

The Antimonopoly Service also inspects economic entities upon petitions from individuals on increased wholesale and retail prices for their products. In September-October 2014, the Central FAS Office together with representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office inspected whether economic entities that control the largest share of the poultry market observed Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The inspections did not reveal violations of the antimonopoly law.

Regional FAS Offices also carry out similar inspections of poultry producers in some constituent territories of the Russian Federation.

Stavropol, Primorie, Perm and Crimea OFAS opened cases upon elements of violating Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” in the part of unreasonably increased poultry prices.

Tomsk OFAS initiated a case upon elements of violating Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”: fixing monopolistically high wholesale pork prices.

In some regions there are also inspections of wholesale suppliers of pork, beef, dairy and fish products as well as retail trading networks to verify compliance with the antimonopoly law.

“The monitoring shows that recently prices have stabilized on many positions, and we observe reduction of prices for some products, for instance, pork and beef”, emphasized the Head of FAS Department for Control over Agro-Industrial Complex and Chemical Industry, Anna Mirochinenko.

Reference:
The “Hot Line” on increased prices was opened on the web-sites of FAS Russia and its regional bodies on 14 August 2014 to control the situation with regard to increasing prices on the food products markets after introducing special economic measures.