An official is disqualified for participating in a cartel

A judgment of Moscow Arbitration Court came into force to hold General Director of “FILAX” Ltd. administratively liable and disqualify for a year.

Earlier Moscow Regional OFAS found that “TIRION” Ltd. and “FILAX” Ltd.  had formed a cartel that had resulted in maintaining prices through joint participation in electronic.

The companies were imposed administrative fines under Part 1 Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations.

In view of the severity of the violation and its public danger, Moscow Regional OFAS filed a claim to Moscow Arbitration Courtto hold General Director of “FILAX” Ltd. administratively liable in the form of disqualification.

Moscow Arbitration Court supported the position of Moscow Regional OFAS and disqualified General Director of “FILAX” Ltd. for one year.

“Combating cartels is one of the priorities for the Antimonopoly Service. The judgment of Moscow Arbitration Court to disqualify the official for participating in a cartel makes a precedent in countering cartels and other anticompetitive agreements. Applying the disqualification norm should become a clear example for other participants of market relations”, commented Deputy Head ofMoscow Regional OFAS, Alexei Azarenko.

Deputy Head ofMoscow Regional OFAS, Sergey Muravyev emphasized that this is the third case of applying disqualification for breaching the antimonopoly law in the Moscow region. In 2015 and 2016 two municipal officials were disqualified for competition-restricting actions upon a claim of Moscow Regional OFAS. The Court is currently considering two more claims where top officials, who were caught involved in anticompetitive agreements, can be disqualified.

Reference:

Disqualification means that a physical person is deprived of the right to serve in federal state civil service, state civil service in a subject of the Russian federation, municipal service, in executive body of a legal entity, be a member of a Board of Directors (Supervisory Board), be involved in business activity on managing a legal entity, manage a legal entity in other cases provided for by the law of the Russian Federation or be involved in rendering state or municipal services or work in the filed of sportsmen training (including medical assistance to them) and organization of sport events, or be involved in expert examination of industrial safety, or in medical or pharmaceutical activity