CASSATION SUPPORTED THE FAS IN THE CASE OF THE DAGESTAN ROAD CARTEL

The Arbitration court of the Moscow District confirmed the legality and validity of the decision made by the FAS Russia in respect of JSC “Mostootryad-99”, LLC “Dorstroyotryad-99”, LLC “Burbau” and LLC SPA “Dormost”

We recall that in November 2018 the FAS Russia found the companies guilty of maintaining prices at auctions for the construction, repair and reconstruction of roads and bridges, and other works carried out on roads and bridges in the Republic of Dagestan in 2015-2018.

The total revenue of the cartel was more than 7 billion rubles.

Parties to the anti-competitive agreement incurred administrative liability. The total amount of fines was more than 223 million rubles.

Meanwhile, the FAS Russia in view of the economic changes related to the spread of the new coronavirus infection COVID-19, decided to extend execution of decisions on bringing to justice all the parties to the agreement for 3 months, which is the maximum time provided by the Code of Administrative Violations of the Russian Federation (CoAV).

Based on the Antimonopoly case file, a criminal case was initiated on the fact of concluding an anti-competitive agreement. The criminal investigation is ongoing.

"Decartelization of areas of road construction and repair is one of the priority activities not only of the FAS Russia, but also of law-enforcement authorities. The road cartel in the Republic of Dagestan allowed its participants to derive revenue of more than 7 billion, which in itself is very significant for one region, and had a clear organization that allowed the cartel to operate in the territory of the Republic for several years. It is important that criminal legal assessment will be also given to actions of those guilty of conclusion of anti-competitive agreement", said Andrey Tenishev, Head of the Anti-Cartel Department of the FAS Russia.