OREANDA-NEWS. December 02, 2010. Moscow Arbitration Court dismissed the claim of the Ministry of Economic Development on invalidating decisions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

According to the FAS Russia’s decision, due to omissions by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor) participants of foreign economic activities could not exercise their right to re-issuing licences, which could have restricted competition in the meat market (in violation of Clause 2 Part 1 Article15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”).

“Rubezh” General Food Corporation” Ltd. and “Prodimport” Ltd., members of “Rubezh” Group of Companies, lodged a complaint to FAS Russia about actions of government officials. The companies reported that in 2006—2009 they repeatedly approached the Ministry of Economic Development asking to re-issue licenses for import of meat. However, the Ministry refused without consulting with the supplying states.

As a result, FAS Russia identified the signs of violating the law on competition when Rosselkhoznadzor failed to inform the Ministry of Economic Development about the ban on meat import due to hostile epizootic situation. The Ministry of Economic Development also violated the law of competition by failure to consult with supplying states about possibilities of importing meat from other countries and re-issuing licences.

Reference:

Clause 2 Part 1 Article15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits federal executive bodies, executive bodies of the constituent territories of the Russian Federation, local self-government bodies, other bodies and organizations exercising the functions of the above bodies, as well as state extra-budgetary funds and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to pass acts and (or) exercise actions (omissions), which lead or can lead to preventing, restricting or eliminating competition, except case specified by the federal laws for adopting acts and (or) exercising such actions (omissions). In particular, it prohibits:

2) Unreasonable prevention of economic activities of market entities, particularly by fixing requirements to the goods or economic entities that are not provided for by the laws of the Russian Federation.