THE CASSATION CONFIRMED THE DECISION OF THE VORONEZH REGIONAL OFFICE OF THE FAS RUSSIA ON THE CARTEL FOR 137 MILLION RUBLES

Center-Dorservis LLC and Geoinformation and Transport Technologies LLC colluded in the market for engineering and technical design of road facilities

It should be reminded that the Voronezh Regional Office of the FAS Russia detected the cartel at the auction for engineering and technical design of tunnels, highways, streets and transport interchanges in the Voronezh District. Participants of the cartel Center-Dorservis LLC and Geoinformation and Transport Technologies LLC concluded 12 contracts for a total amount of more than 130 million rubles.

When trying to appeal the decision of the antimonopoly authority, the defendants provided a trust management agreement. Thus, the companies tried to justify the admissibility of their anti-competitive agreement.

The defendants explained that they implement a single economic activity in the common interests and, in their opinion, they are not subject to the prohibitions provided for by the antimonopoly law*.

However, the Arbitration Court of the Central District did not accept such an argument as justification for the admissibility of the cartel and indicated that such agreements do not exempt entrepreneurs from the obligation to comply with the requirements of the law. Thus, the cassation confirmed the legality of the decision of the Voronezh Regional Office of the FAS Russia and canceled the judicial acts of the previous instances as illegal and unfounded, putting an end to this case.

“The field of road design is highly competitive, so any concerted actions of unfair bidders involve negative consequences for the market. Besides, such behavior also causes huge harm to the economy, because only healthy competition can ensure the effective use of budget funds,” Denis Chushkin, Head of the Voronezh Regional Office of the FAS Russia said.

* Paragraph 2 of part 1 of article 11 of the Law on Protection of Competition