MORE CARTEL ORCHESTRATORS ON TRIAL
Stavropol Prosecutor’s Office took a criminal case to Court [1] upon a fact of an anticompetitive collusion exposed by Stavropol OFAS
It is already the 10th criminal case against a cartel submitted to Court since the beginning of 2019.
The case is opened upon a decision of Stavropol OFAS which found that “Inzhener” Ltd. and “Kavkazstroiinvest” Ltd. had violated the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” [2] – establishing a cartel in order to maintain prices at an auction for constructing sport facilities in Stavropol and Novoaleksandrovsk.
The cartel members acted intentionally and as a result gained income exceeding 400 million RUB.
The companies are imposed administrative fines – nearly 2.5 million RUB in total, while their top executives can face criminal liability.
Andrey Tenishev, Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department said: “Following instructions issued by the President of the Russian Federation and according to the Inter-Departmental Programme for countering cartels and other anticompetitive agreements, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, the antimonopoly and law enforcement bodies are undertaking systemic efforts to decartelize all spheres of the national economy. The situation in question is another clear example of efficient interaction between the antimonopoly and law enforcement bodies. The construction sector is one of the most cartelized in Russia. Our goal is to wipe out cartels in this industry systematically and consistently and allow bona fide businessmen to compete with each other on a transparent basis”.
[1] Part 2 Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
[2] Clause 2 Part 1 Article 11.