OREANDA-NEWS. March 30, 2010. On 26th February 2010, the Moscow Arbitration Court dismissed the claim of the "Russian Post Office" Federal State Unitary Enterprise and confirmed validity of the decision and determination issued by The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia).

Earlier FAS Russia found that the "Russian Post Office" Federal State Unitary Enterprise violated Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (abusing market dominance) and issued a determination to eliminate the violations.

FAS Russia received a petition of "JANZEN S.R.O." The Petitioner claimed that actions of the "Russian Post Office" Federal State Unitary Enterprise - reducing and suspending services for processing international mail at the outlets for international postal exchange of the Russian Federation, and proposing terms and conditions of a contract with foreign operators for postal services - did not comply with the antimonopoly law.

"JANZEN S.R.O." is a postal operator of the Czech Republic and Germany and provides postal services to the users outside the Russian Federation for acceptance, shipping and delivery of mail (parcels) to the addressees, including the Russian Federation.

Under the service contract of 14th February 2005, the "Russian Post Office" Federal State Unitary Enterprise provides postal services to "JANZEN S.R.O." - acceptance, processing, presentation parcels, sent by "JANZEN S.R.O." to addressees - physical persons in the Russian Federation, to customs bodies for customs registration and screening.

On 8th September 2007, the "Russian Post Office" Federal State Unitary Enterprise stopped accepting and processing international mail of "JANZEN S.R.O." In its letter of 30th October 2007 the "Russian Post Office" Federal State Unitary Enterprise informed "JANZEN S.R.O." that from 30th October 2007 acceptance and processing of international mail would be restricted to one vehicle per fortnight.

FAS Russia concluded that actions of the "Russian Post Office" Federal State Unitary Enterprise - evading a postal services contract with "JANZEN S.R.O." (mail acceptance, processing, delivery and presentation to customs bodies for customs registration and screening) by requesting information that "JANZEN S.R.O." was a designated operator, resulted in inability of "JANZEN S.R.O." to provide international postal services for its customers. It infringed the interests of "JANZEN S.R.O." and can restrict competition on the market of postal services in the Russian Federation, and also infringed the interests of company's customers.

The "Russian Post Office" Federal State Unitary Enterprise did not report on economic or technological reasons justifying its refusal to enter into a contract with "JANZEN S.R.O." for postal services (mail acceptance, processing, delivery) and mail presentation to customs bodies for customs registration and screening.

The FAS Russia's decision and determination are aimed at preventing abuse of market dominance.

The "Russian Post Office" Federal State Unitary Enterprise filed a law suit, but the Court confirmed the rightness of the FAS Russia's position.