ST Petersburg FAS fined violators of allocating mandatory medical insurance funds in St Petersburg 240,000 RUB

Officials of St Petersburg Government and the Commission for a regional mandatory medical insurance programme are fined for violating the antimonopoly law  

FAS finalized a series of antimonopoly investigations, where it established a list of violators of the antimonopoly law in allocating mandatory medical insurance funds in St Petersburg.

Earlier FAS found that St Petersburg Government and the Commission for a regional mandatory medical insurance programme in St Petersburg had violated Clause 8 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” as a result of discriminating economic entities when devising the regional mandatory medical insurance programme.

The violators appealed the decision and injunction of the antimonopoly (Nos. 18/43703/16 and 18/43702/16); however, the Court of First Instance and the Appeal Court confirmed legitimacy and reasonableness of FAS conclusions.  

As a result of the investigations, 16 officials of the St Petersburg Commission, who voted for the Commission making decisions in breach of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, are held administratively liable.

St Petersburg Vice-Governor was also fined for omissions of St Petersburg Government in the part of creating discriminatory conditions for providing high technology medical care.  

Deputy Head of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade, Maxim Degtyaryov emphasized: “Officials of all Mandatory Insurance Commissions in any subjects of the Russian Federation should understand that allocating the volumes of medical care without taking objective criteria, market participants needs and opportunities into account always has a risk of creating discriminatory conditions and can lead to restricting competition. At the same time, participation in the work of the collegial body does not exonerate personal responsibility emerging at the time of voting for relevant decisions”.