OREANDA-NEWS. April 04, 2011. The Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Voronezh region (Voronezh OFAS Russia) initiated a case against “Russian Railways” OJSC upon the signs of violating Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The company violated the law because in March 2011 it evaded, without any economic and technological justification, approving an application of “Olshansky Karier” OJSC for cargo transportation and providing services for transportation of goods by railway transport in general use, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The case was initiated upon a petition of “Olshansky Karier” OJSC. In course of an inspection, experts of Voronezh OFAS Russia established that in March 2011 the petitioner filed an application to the Road Centre for Branded Transportation Services of the South-East Railway for transportation of 82,960 tons of cargo by railway transport in 1,220 cars of the general fleet of “Russian Railways” OJSC. In a few days the application for cargo transportation was approved but the carrier unilaterally changed the period, specifying approval validity from 1st April 2011 to 4th May 2011. Thus, the application for cargo transportation in March 2011 was rejected in full.

“Russian Railways” OJSC is a holder of natural monopoly and dominates the market of railway services and the services for providing open box cars for transportation of freight in bulk by railway transport in general use.

Voronezh OFAS Russia concluded that “Russian Railways” OJSC evaded approving the application of “Olshansky Karier” OJSC for freight transportation in March 2011 and providing in this period the services for transportation of goods by railway transport in general use, which has the signs of abusing market dominance and violating Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

The case will be considered on 26th April 2011.

“The case against a holder of natural monopoly is important for developing competition on the market of sale of construction materials to consignors because such actions of the carrier heavily infringe the interests of the consignor by threatening its operations on the relevant market”, said Deputy Head of Voronezh OFAS Russia, Mr. Vitaly Popov.