OREANDA-NEWS. On April 21, 2009 the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation revoked the judgment of the Arbitration Court of the Tatarstan Republic of 15th April 2008, the ruling of the 11th Arbitration Appeal Court of 17th July 2008 and the ruling of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Povolzye District of 2nd October 2008 on the case initiated by the Tatarstan OFAS Russia against trade networks, and remanded the case for reconsideration by the Arbitration Court of the Tatarstan Republic, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

On 29th January 2008, the Tatarstan Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (OFAS Russia) found that the following retail chains violated Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition": "Аk Bars Torg" Ltd. (of Kazan), "Tander" CJSC - a "Magnit" chain of stores (of Krasnodar), and "Perekryostok" Trading House" CJSC and "Firma "Omega-97" - Paterson" Ltd. (Moscow).

The retail chains were engaged in anticompetitive concerted actions by imposing similar unfavourable pricing and non-pricing conditions upon the suppliers.

The Antimonopoly Office discovered more than 40 such discriminatory conditions, including a fee for entry to a chain (50,000 -150,000 Rubles), for introduction of a new product, payment for marketing services, considerable deferral of payments for the distributed goods (up to 45 days), as well as large fines for violations of supply terms and conditions (breaching the contract terms and undersupplying the goods), discounts for advertising and promotion campaigns (2% - 10% of the product price).

Having established the fact of violating the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" by the retail chains, the Tatarstan OFAS Russia issued determinations to the chains to exclude discriminatory conditions from the contracts with the suppliers.

The retail chains appealed the decision of the Antimonopoly Office to the court of law.