MOSCOW OFAS EXPOSED ELEMENTS OF A “SOUVENIR” CARTEL

The antimonopoly body opened a case against two companies that participated in an auction for the support services to the delegation and volunteers from St Petersburg at the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students

Moscow OFAS analyses several auctions for organizing festival events and exposed elements of a cartel in the course of organizing the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students. In 2017, St Petersburg Committee on Youth Policy and   Interaction with NGO procured souvenir products for St Petersburg delegation for   16 million RUB. Two companies took part in the auction: “Remar” Ltd. and “3D Light” Ltd. The winner was “3D Light” Ltd. that had offered the price at 3.5% reduction.

Moscow OFAS exposed elements of exchanging information in the each other’s interests using common infrastructure by the companies.

Head of Moscow OFAS Armen Khanyan stated: “We constantly say that cartel are an economic evil and fight against this phenomenon. And in this case we will expose all circumstances of the cartel case and forward the materials to the law enforcement bodies to hold the violators criminally liable”

Anticompetitive agreements are punishable under Part 2 Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations”: administrative fines up to 50% of the initial contract value for legal entities and up to 50,000 RUB for top-executives.