A MOST LARGE-SCALE CARTEL CASE STOOD ON APPEAL

Appeal Court confirmed legitimacy of FAS decision

The Antimonopoly Service found that 90 legal entities are guilty of a bid-rigging cartel for supplying gear and accessories for the needs of the Federal Customs Service, the Ministry of Interior and the Federal Security Service. The total fines for the violations reached 660 million RUB.

In the course of the investigation, FAS identified 18 open electronic auctions when its bidders formed a cartel for the total sum exceeding 3.5 billion RUB.

The cartel members developed a system of “quotas” that they could obtain, exchange or accumulate to become auction “contract holders”.

For some bidders it was a recurrent offence: several companies were already held liable for a similar violation in 2012.

Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department Andrey Tenishev commented: “FAS made a decision on the fact of the cartel in August 2016 and the judicial proceedings took three years. Statistics shows that FAS wins 97% cartel cases at Courts so in spite of delaying punishment through lengthy litigation, it is inevitable and sooner or later finds the violators”.