AN ANTIMONOPOLY CASE HAS BEEN INITIATED AGAINST TWO SUGAR FACTORIES IN THE KRASNODAR REGION

The reason for the initiation of the case was the appeal of the governor of the Krasnodar region and the prosecutor's office to increase the selling prices of sugar factories.

In March 2022, Pavlovsky Sugar Factory LLC  and Sugar Combine  Tikhoretsky CJSC increased wholesale and selling prices for sugar by more than 30% - up to 68.30 rubles per kilogram. At the same time, the cost of sugar did not change and amounted to 28.66 rubles per kilogram.

The legislation does not prohibit enterprises from changing their own pricing policy taking into account the market situation. However, according to the Law on Protection of Competition, agreements between competitors are prohibited if they can lead to the establishment or maintenance of prices.

There are no objective prerequisites for a significant simultaneous increase in selling prices by competing enterprises. Thus, the actions of the factories show signs of collusion aimed at maintaining sugar prices.

Based on this, the Krasnodar Regional Office of FAS initiated an antimonopoly case against the plants. In case of finding fault in accordance with the Code of Administrative Offences the Russian Federation, the participants in the conspiracy face negotiable fines.

* Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Article 11 of Federal Law No. 135-FZ of 26.07.2006 “On Protection of Competition”