OREANDA-NEWS. September 02, 2010. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) found that the Federal Service for Regulating Alcohol Market (Rosalcoholregulirovanie) violated Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Earlier FAS Russia received a complaint from “Rodnik i K” Ltd. about the decision of Rosalcoholregulirovanie not to grant the company license for purchasing, storage and delivery of alcohol products.

To obtain the license, “Rodnik i K” Ltd. submitted the full package of documents to Rosalcoholregulirovanie. According to the petitioner, Rosalcoholregulirovanie set requirements that are not provided for by the Federal Law “On State Regulation of Production and Circulation of Ethyl Alcohol and Alcohol Products” and the Administrative Regulations for executing the state licensing function by the Federal Tax Service in accordance with the Law of the Russian Federation on production and circulation of ethyl alcohol and alcohol products.

Having investigated the case FAS Russia, established that the company presented the full package of documents to Rosalcoholregulirovanie required to obtain a license for purchasing, storage and delivery of alcohol products.

Rosalcoholregulirovanie received the documents necessary to register the license from the petitioner, including reports on conformity of the company’s warehouse premises to the sanitary-and epidemiological standards and the fire safety standards, but decided it could additionally examine the conclusions of regulatory bodies responsible for issuing such reports, without engaging relevant expert organizations.

Having heard the arguments of a representative of Rosalcoholregulirovanie and examined the documents presented by the parties, the FAS Russia’s Commission concluded that explanations of Rosalcoholregulirovanie contained extended interpretation of normative legal acts of the Russian Federation, which was not based on the existing legislation.

Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits the authorities to pass acts and take actions (omissions) that lead or can lead to preventing, eliminating or restricting competition.

As Rosalcoholregulirovanie voluntarily eliminated antimonopoly violations by granting the license for purchasing, storage and delivery of alcohol products to “Rodnik i K” Ltd., FAS Russia closed the antimonopoly case against Rosalcoholregulirovanie.