ROSSOTRUDNICHESTVO EXECUTED FAS WARNING

Rossotrudnichestvo restricted foreign nationals in their choice of an operator for filing documents to study in Russia and, as a result, received a FAS warning

The Federal Agency for the CIS Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo), which, in particular, is involved in selecting foreign student for studies at Russian universities, indicated only the portal of the “Agency for Cooperation in Education” Ltd. (“ASO” Ltd.) on its web-site as the only official web-site for filing documents in order to obtain Russian education. Thus, actions of the Federal Agency restricted competition: in particular, the Agency restricted consumers in their choice of operators for filing education documents*.

FAS issued a warning to Rossotrudnichestvo to stop restricting competition and eliminate the exposed violations by 25 December 2019. The Federal Agency reported about executing the warning within the period set by the Antimonopoly Service.

Reference:

* Clause 5 Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, bans federal executive bodies to adopt acts and (or) exercise actions (omissions) that lead or can lead to preventing, restricting, eliminating competition, except  cases specified in the federal laws of adopting acts and (or) exercising such actions (omissions); particularly, setting restrictions for buyers of goods in their choice of economic entities that provide such goods, is prohibited.