Khabarovsk OFAS punished “FPK” OJSC for fixing monopolistically high prices and creating discriminatory conditions in transportation

The Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Khabarovsk region (Khabarovsk OFAS Russia) fined “Federal Passenger Company” OJSC (“FPK” OJSC) over 1.5 million RUB for abusing marker dominance. The company fixed monopolistically high prices for the services of cargo-luggage transportation and created discriminatory conditions in organizing transportation for “Far East Railway Company Ltd. (“DZhK” Ltd.)

“FPK” OJSC is included in the Register of transport natural monopolies. According to the presented documents, “FPK” OJSC charged “DZhK” Ltd. for transporting attendants who were escorting and servicing cars en route, despite accounting for those costs in the rates for long-distance carriage.

In the course of the case investigation OFAS established that the monopolist also charged all economic entities that ship cargo-luggage by public railways on domestic routes (long-distance trains).

Earlier “FPK” OJSC issued an operation order to all structural units to be guided and execute a telegram of “Russian Railways” OJSC: if a train travel time exceeds 12 hours, a car can be serviced by no more than two attendants, that are members of the train crew and can travel without payment. At the same time, “FPK” OJSC did not undertake voluntary actions to compensate unlawful payments from “DZhK” Ltd.

Khabarovsk OFAS Russia found that “FPK” OJSC violated Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. Upon investigating an administrative case, “FPK” OJSC promptly compensated unlawful payments to “DZhK” Ltd., which was a circumstance mitigating administrative liability.