Karelia OFAS warned the Ministry of Construction of the Republic of Karelia

A regional Office of the Antimonopoly Service issued a warning to the Ministry of Construction, Housing & Utility Complex, and the Energy Industry of the Republic of Karelia to stop actions that have elements of breaching the antimonopoly law.

Inspecting the work of the Ministry of Construction of the Republic of Karelia and its subordinate organizations, Karelia OFASanalyzed the official web-site of the Ministry.

Some standards, average estimated prices and indices are published with “protection”: an inscription covering the main text, no “copy” function, cutting off information. The “search” function is not always active and the “print” function for some documents is blocked. Such publication prevents free use of the documents by interested users, forcing them approach private companies on a fee-paid basis to obtain documentation.  

All this prevents companies entering the market of services for developing design-and-estimate documentation for the facilities in the Republic and restricts software developers’ entry to the market of developing software for to create design-and-estimate documentation.

Thus, the actions of the have elements of breaching Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” and can constitute an administrative barrier.

The Ministry must put all standards, average estimated prices and indices of the Republic of Karelia in the format enabling any interested person to copying, cutting parts of documents, context searching and printing without “protecting” text being put on the documents.

If the warning is not executed within the designated period, Karelia OFAS will open an antimonopoly case.