APPEAL SUPPORTED THE POSITION OF THE FAS RUSSIA IN THE "CARTEL UNDER HYPNOSIS" CASE
The Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the antimonopoly authority against companies that have been implementing an anti-competitive agreement in the healthcare sector for more than three years
It should be reminded that the FAS Russia found Aksonmed LLC, Satori LLC, Intermed LLC, Divais LLC, Lotos LLC (INN 7725786031), Equipmed LLC and Lotos LLC (INN 7710935280) guilty of entering into and implementing a cartel agreement when participating in public procurement for the supply of medical products and cleaning supplies1.
The cartel was implemented at 111 electronic auctions for the needs of state and municipal healthcare institutions in 18 regions of the Russian Federation. The cartel has operated for more than three years, the amount of its income exceeded 735 million rubles.
The companies participating in the cartel agreed not to reduce prices at the auctions and to divide the auctions among themselves.
Then, after the conclusion of government contracts, budget funds were channeled through front organizations in order to withdraw them from legal circulation.
Improving his involvement in the activities of the cartel, one of its former2 members said that “supposedly, the minds of people were psychologically influenced by hypnosis or other techniques”.
“The court's decision once again confirms the professionalism of our decisions and successful cooperation with law enforcement agencies and Rosfinmonitoring allows us to expand our capabilities in the fight against cartels,” said Andrey Tenishev, Head of the Anti-Cartel Department of the FAS Russia.
1 Paragraph 2 of the Part 1 of the Article 11 of the Law on Protection of Competition. According to the materials available in the case file on violation of the antimonopoly legislation.
2 The case on violation of the antimonopoly legislation in relation to Equipmed LLC and Lotos LLC was dismissed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations and the termination of the activities of these legal entities. The case against Lotos LLC was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.