A GUILTY VERDICT WAS PASSED IN THE CRIMINAL CASE OF THE CARTEL IN VORONEZH

Collusion was revealed at auctions held for the needs of social budgetary institutions of the Voronezh region

In 2023, the Voronezh Regional Office of the FAS Russia revealed a cartel between Simestra LLC, Agrotrest LLC and Prodsnab-Agro LLC. The anti-competitive agreement was valid at 6 auctions for the supply of food to healthcare and educational institutions in the region. The amount of contracts concluded as a result of the anti-competitive agreement amounted to 52,399,757 rubles.

The Antimonopoly Service imposed turnover fines on the cartel members. Their total amount was 3,736,720 rubles.

The materials of the antimonopoly case were sent to the investigative department for the Kominternovsky district of the city of Voronezh of the Investigative Committee  of the Russian Federation in the Voronezh Region for inclusion in the materials of the criminal case**.

The preliminary investigation ended with the transfer of materials to the court. The Kominternovsky District Court of the city of Voronezh has convicted an official of Prodsnab-Agro LLC. The punishment was imposed in the form of imprisonment for a period of 5 years and 8 months, suspended with a probation period of 3 years and a fine of 300,000 rubles***.

Reference:

* according to the Paragraph 2 of the Part 1 of the Article 11 of the Law on Protection of Competition, agreements between competing business entities are recognized as a cartel and prohibited, i.e. agreements between business entities selling goods in the same commodity market, or between business entities purchasing goods in the same commodity market, if such agreements lead or may lead to an increase, reducing or maintaining prices at auction

** a criminal case was initiated under paragraph "b" of the Part 7 of Article 204, part 3 of the Article 30, paragraph "a" of the Part 2 of the Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

*** punishment is imposed for a set of crimes, responsibility for which is provided for in paragraph "b" of the Part 7 of the Article 204, Part 3 of the Article 30, Paragraph "a" of the Part 2 of the Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.