SYZRAN AUTHORITY IS SUSPECTED OF CONCLUDING AN ANTICOMPETITIVE AGREEMENT

FAS re-categorized a case against a local self-government body

On 31 July 2018, Syzran Authority assigned the status of a common heating supplier to “Energetic” Ltd. but did not comply with the statutory procedure.

Omission by the local self-government body – failure to organize a competitive procedure, restricted legitimate rights of other market players. Syzran Authority did not inform heating suppliers about a possibility to apply for the status of a common heating supplier.

FAS issued a warning to Syzran Authority. Within 60 days after receiving it, the local self-government body had to organize a competitive procedure for defining the status of a common heating supplier under the law of the Russian Federation in the heating field.

Syzran Authority failed to execute FAS warning. Following the Law “On Protection of Competition”, the competition authority opened a case upon the fact of non-executing FAS warning.

Investigating the case, FAS exposed elements of anticompetitive agreement concluded with an economic entity - “Energetic” Ltd. and re-categorized it under Article 16 the Law “On Protection of Competition” that bans such agreements.

Head of FAS Department for Regulating the Housing-and-Utilities Sector, Alexei Matyukhin, commented: “Once again, it should be emphasized to the authorities that they should rigorously execute the order of the President of the Russian Federation on the main directions of the state policy on competition development, one of the objectives of which is to decrease violations of the Law “On Protection of Competition” by the authorities and introduce antimonopoly compliance to prevent such violations”.