FAS REVEALED CARTEL AT AUCTION FOR SUPPLY OF SOCIALLY SIGNIFICANT PRODUCTS WORTH MORE THAN 1.9 BILLION RUB

The auctions were held for the needs of budgetary, medical and other social institutions of the city of Moscow, Moscow and Kaluga regions

FAS Russia recognized Vesta LLC and AST Service LLC as violating antimonopoly legislation (1).

The companies entered into an anticompetitive agreement in order to maintain prices at auctions for the supply of food products, including those included in the List of certain types of socially significant food necessities.

Organizations submitted in their bids the same supply contracts concluded among themselves, which differ only in price. As a result, the companies obtained the maximum score based on evaluation of applications and subsequently concluded government contracts with a minimum reduction (2).

In the course of proceedings, one of the defendants filed admission of its guilt to the authority (3), for which this defendant was exempted from administrative responsibility.

The materials of the antimonopoly case will be submitted to law enforcement agencies to resolve the issue of initiating a criminal case. The second defendant faces a turnover fine in accordance with the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (4).

The authority will continue to monitor the situation in socially significant markets for the presence of anti-competitive agreements or coordinated actions.

For reference:

(1) Paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Article 11 of the Federal Law of 26.07.2006 No. 135-FZ "On Protection of Competition"

(2) The average decrease in the initial maximum contract prices is 0.017 %

(3) Note 1 to Article 14.32 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation

(4) Part 2 of Article 14.32 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation