“DESK” PJSC will pay 650,000 RUB for abusing dominance

Dagestan OFAS fined “DESK” PJSC 650,000 RUB for violating the antimonopoly law.

“Elektroset” Municipal Unitary Enterprise (Kizilyurt) filed a complaint to the antimonopoly body regarding “DESK” PJSC. The company drew OFAS attention to the fact that the energy supplier refused to accept the readings of communal metering devices regarding the consumed electric power.

OFAS opened a case against “DESK” upon elements of violating Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” (abusing dominance). In the course of the investigation OFAS revealed that in March 2012 “Elektroset” and “DESK” PJSC had concluded a contract for rendering electric power transmission services. Later, according to a meeting protocol of “DESK” Executive Director, to regulate the discrepancies on the quantities of the electric power transferred to the residential electric customers, a decision was made that settlements between the ordering party (“DESK” PJSC) and the executor (“Elektroset”) would be based on the readings from collective (communal) metering devices.

In March 2013, however, “DESK” PJSC unilaterally terminated accepting the reading of communal electric power metering devices.

“DESK” PJSC unlawfully avoided fulfilling its contractual obligations, which led to increasing insolvency of “Elektroset” Municipal Unitary Enterprise, and as a result “Elektroset” was unable to honour its obligations to other lenders.

The antimonopoly body found that “DESK” PJSC violated the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” and held the company administratively liable, imposing the 650,000 RUB fine.