CASSATION COURT: TOURISM COMMITTEE DID NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO CONCLUDE A CONTRACT WITH “ART. LEBEDEV’S STUDIO”

On 16 April 2018, the Arbitration Court of the St Petersburg District recognized legitimacy of the decision and injunction issued by St Petersburg OFAS with regard to St Petersburg City Tourism Committee (the Committee).

Investigating the statement of “Grigoriev Boris & Partners” Marketing Company” Ltd., the antimonopoly body established that the Committee violated Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” by entering into a contract with the “Art.Lebedev’s Studio” Ltd. (the Studio) for developing a tourist logo of St Petersburg without open tenders.

Due to a closed nature of relations between the Committee and the Studio on logo development, other economic entities operating on the market were deprived of a similar opportunity.

Following the results of the investigation, the Committee is given an injunction to terminate the contract with the “Art.Lebedev’s Studio” Ltd. and to stop using a series of logos developed by the Studio.

Head of St Petersburg OFAS Vadim Vladimirov emphasized: “It is a principal case for our OFAS: the Tourism Committee claimed that since the amount involved is “one Ruble”, there is no need for competitive bidding. No, there is a need! And the Cassation Court also thinks so. We are satisfied with the Court ruling”.