The Antimonopoly Service formed a position on applying the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” to dealer agreements

FAS explained applying the antimonopoly law to “vertical” agreements, including dealer agreements.
This type of agreements enables movement of goods along the production chain to the end consumer.
Such agreements between the goods producer and the buyer that intends to resell the goods should be classified as “vertical” if the parties sell the goods within the boundaries of the same market. FAS may consider such a condition as violating Clause 1 Part 2 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.
FAS explanation also emphasizes that an agency contract is not a “vertical” agreement.
According to Deputy Head of FAS Sergey Puzurevsky, the Antimonopoly Service employs a reasonable approach to evaluate conditions for cooperation between a producer and a distributor. “FAS determines probability of adverse consequences for competition and makes a decisions on applying antimonopoly remedies already on the basis of this evaluation”.