Cassation Court supported FAS in a case on oil products transportation in Chukotka
On 3 May 2017, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District pronounced legitimacy and reasonableness of FAS decision on the case against “Chukotsnab” State Unitary Enterprise of Chukotka Autonomous District and “Polyarnaya Zvezda” Prospectors’ Cooperative” CJSC and upheld the judgment of Moscow Arbitration Court and the ruling of the 9th Arbitration Appeal Court on the case.
In December 2015 FAS found that “Chukotsnab” and “Polyarnaya Zvezda” violated Clause 3 Part 4 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”: The organizations entered into an anticompetitive agreement to ensure that “Polyarnaya Zvezda” would win procurement of services for road transportation of oil products.
Through the anticompetitive agreement, “Chukotsnab” and “Polyarnaya Zvezda” set special restrictive requirements for road carriers, in particular, increasing tender and contract execution security. The requirements were included in procurement documentation which made “Polyarnaya Unitary Enterprise for the overall amount exceeding 800 million RUB.
Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Andrey Tenishev stated: “Investigating the antimonopoly case FAS established that the anticompetitive agreement adversely affected the price trends for oil products in the Chukotka region. Exposing and suppressing the agreement stabilized the situation on the market of selling oil products; particularly, prices for diesel fuel in 2016 went down. “Chukotsnab” and “Polyarnaya Zvezda” are held administratively liable for unlawful actions”.