COURT OF APPEAL SUPPORTED DECISION OF THE FAS AGAINST TAMBOV REGIONAL OPERATOR

Tambovskaya setevaya kompaniya JSC, occupying a dominant position in the MSW transportation market, has limited the number of potential auction bidders for the collection and transportation of waste.

The court of appeal supported the decision of the antimonopoly body against the regional municipal solid waste (MSW) operator of the Tambov region. The antimonopoly service earlier found that the company prevented the access of other companies engaged in the transportation of municipal solid waste in the region to the market. In this regard, the Commission of the FAS Russia recognized the regional operator Tambovskaya setevaya kompaniya JSC ("TSK") as violating the Law on Protection of Competition [1].

The regional operator was appointed to hold bidding to form service prices for the collection and transportation of MSW and, based on its results, conclude agreements with the MSW operators [2]. It should be noted, that according to the current legislation, the citizens and regional enterprises cannot conclude MSW management service agreements with other economic entities [3].

The FAS Russia came found that the TSK company did not take into account logistical factors, as well as economic and technical features of the activities of persons engaged in the MSW transportation in the formation of the lots. In addition, there were no lots for bidding only between the small and medium-sized businesses [4].

The abovementioned actions resulted in the absence of participants and the bidding was declared invalid [5].

The antimonopoly service issued the TSK company remedies to stop violating the antimonopoly law. The company attempted to appeal against it, but the decision of the FAS Russia was supported first by the court of the first instance, and then by the court of appeal. It should be noted that a company received an administrative fine for the abuse of a dominant position in the market [6].

The decision made by the antimonopoly service is designed to make the bidding procedure more transparent for potential MSW operators and prevent violations of the law by other regional operators.

Forreference:

[1] paragraph 9 of part 1 of Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition

[2] paragraph 3 of the Bidding Rules, on the results of which the service prices for the transportation of MSW by a regional operator are formed, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1133 of 03.11.2016;

[3] Article 24.7 of the Federal Law No. 89-FZ of 24.06.1998 "On Production and Consumption Waste", Article 30 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, paragraph 5 of the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1156 of 12.11.2016;

[4] paragraph 9 of the Bidding Rules, on the results of which the service prices for the transportation of MSW by a regional operator are formed, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1133 of 03.11.2016;

[5] paragraph 13 of the Bidding Rules, on the results of which the service prices for the transportation of MSW by a regional operator are formed, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1133 of 03.11.2016;

[6] part 2 of Article 14.31 of the Code of Administrative Offences