Cassation Court supported FAS arguments in a case on the “highway” cartel
Cassation Court supported FAS arguments in a case on the “highway” cartel
The 9th Arbitration Appeal Court confirmed the judgment of Moscow Arbitration Court on a case against the cartel formed by bidders of an auction for construction and servicing М-54 “Yenisei” highway. The arguments put forward by “Dorogi Sibiri” Ltd., “Vostok” Ltd. and “No. 364 DEP” OJSC that the Court of First Instance incorrectly applied the norms of substantive law were not corroborated.
FAS recognized “Dorogi Sibiri” Ltd., “Vostok” Ltd., “No. 364 DEP” OJSC, “No. 363 DEP” OJSC construction companies and an individual entrepreneur Oganesyan as participants of a cartel formed at e-auction for construction and repair of М-54 “Yenisei” highway from Krasnoyarsk via Abakan and Kyzyl to the Mongolian border. The sum of the government contracts reached 1.86 billion RUB.
FAS collected enough evidence to prove the cartel. FAS established that price offers of competitors were identical; the winner hired the bidder that “lost” to carry out a subcontract, or purchased materials from that bidder to repair and service highways, and lease road equipment from this bidder. Competitors also granted loans to each other to secure the bids to take part in the tender.
“Economic methods of proving the case played a significant role in the investigation. The antimonopoly body also analyzed auctions, the bids for which were filed by other companies – bona fide participants that were not involved in the cartel. At those auctions the original prices went down by 20% - 44 %, and the government contracts were fully executed at high quality”, commented Deputy Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Mukhamed Khamukov.
“The exposed cartel existed for several years. Its participants gained especially large income; thus, the case materials were transferred to the law enforcement bodies to open a criminal case under Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation”, pointed out Deputy Head of FAS Alexander Kinev.