APPEAL CONFIRMED LEGALITY OF FAS RULING AND FINES OF MORE THAN 228 MILLION RUB FOR ROAD CARTEL

RostovAvtoDor and Stroitel LLC have to pay fines to the budget of the Russian Federation

The Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal recognized as lawful the decision of FAS Russia in relation to the State Unitary Enterprise RostovAvtoDor and Stroitel LLC, as well as the fines imposed for the cartel agreement. Earlier, the Arbitration Court of Moscow also confirmed the legality of the decision and fines.

Recall that in September 2022, FAS Russia recognized the State Unitary Enterprise RostovAvtoDor and Stroitel LLC as violating the antimonopoly legislation*.

The authority found that the companies entered into a cartel in order to maintain prices at auctions for the construction, repair and maintenance of roads in the Rostov Region and the Republic of Kalmykia in 2017-2020. Trade procedures were carried out, including in implementing of the national project "Safe High-quality roads". The amount of the concluded state contracts amounted to 1,947,936,610 rubles.

For the conclusion and implementation of a cartel agreement, fines were imposed on organizations in the total amount of 228,791,080 rubles**.

* Paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Article 11 of Federal Law No. 135-FZ of 26.07.2006 "On Protection of Competition"

** In accordance with Article 14.32 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation the fines for each of the organizations were: SUE RO RostovAvtoDor in the amount of 209,571,560 rubles, Stroitel LLC in the amount of 19,219,520 rubles