OREANDA-NEWS. On June 19, 2009 the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) initiated a case against "Bezant" Ltd., "Tenzor" Instrument Plant" OJSC, "Nauchnie Pribory" CJSC, "Unitech" Ltd., "Technotransservice Engineering" CJSC, "Polyten" Ltd., "Atlas-Cart" CJSC and "Atlas" Research-and-Development" Federal State Unitary Enterprise for the elements of violating Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (competition-restricting concerted actions), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

FAS Russia suspects that the economic entities violated the antimonopoly legislation by engaging in concerted actions towards repeated simultaneous increase of prices for the manufactured goods necessary for producing SECT for checking-out and teller equipment.

FAS Russia receives numerous petitions from individual entrepreneurs, economic entities and officials about overrated costs of SECT.

SECT is a technical device which ensures secure from undetected correction (by means of cryptography) registration and energy-independent long-term storage of each cash payment through checking-out and teller equipment. Storing information is necessary for full income registration and correct taxation.

The main reason for complaints was dramatic (by a factor of 1.3) increase of SECT prices in December 2008 - February 2009, which considerably increased expenses of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs for buying, using and technical maintenance of checking-out and teller equipment.

Under the current legislation, SECT is mandatory for use in all checking-out and teller equipment in the Russian Federation. The Regulations of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for technical means of cryptographic security determines the SECT life capability, which is 13 months. Upon SECT expiry, the checking-out and teller equipment is automatically blocked and cannot be used until SECT is replaced. Thus, all owners of checking-out and teller equipment must replace SECT every year at their own cost and expense.

FAS Russia also initiated a case against "Bezant" Ltd. for the elements of violating Part 1 Article 10 and Part 3 Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (monopolistically high prices).

FAS Russia suspects that that company violated the antimonopoly legislation by abusing dominant position on the Russian SECT market. The company fixed monopolistically high prices for the goods as a result of its consent to purchase electronic memory devices, used as the basis for SECT manufacturing, at unreasonably high prices. FAS Russia also suspects that the above legal persons engaged in actions aimed at coordinating economic activities of independent market participants, which resulted in fixing and maintaining prices on the SECT market.

FAS Russia asks to promptly report any information related to the above antimonopoly cases as well as documents and materials indicating possible antimonopoly violations on the SECT market to the antimonopoly authority by calling +7 (499) 795-73-42 (anonymity guaranteed).