OREANDA-NEWS. May 10, 2011. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) terminated proceedings against “Nyandomskaya Zernovaya Kompania” Ltd., “Contact-Sever” Ltd., “Arkhangelsky Combinat Khleboproduktov” OJSC and “Contact Severo-Zapad” Ltd. due to absence of antimonopoly violations in their actions, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The case was initiated upon the signs of violating Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, when the companies simultaneously increased wheat prices.

In course of antimonopoly investigation, FAS Russia concluded that “Arkhangelsky Combinat Khleboproduktov” OJSC operates on the market of wheat production and distribution, while “Contact Severo-Zapad” Ltd. and “Contact-Sever” Ltd. do not produce milling products and instead buy it in various regions of the Russian Federation, and supply wholesale quantities of wheat to the Arkhangelsk region as well as outside the region. “Nyandomskaya Zernovaya Kompania” Ltd. also does not produce milling products and operates on the market of services for wholesale sale of wheat.

Therefore, increase of prices for milling products of “Arkhangelsky Combinat Khleboproduktov” OJSC was related to increase of purchasing prices for grain and increase of the costs, which was confirmed by calculations.

“Contact Severo-Zapad” Ltd. is the main supplier to “Contact-Sever” Ltd., and increase of ex-works supplier’s prices resulted in growth of ex-works prices of “Contact-Sever” Ltd. and “Nyandomskaya Zernovaya Kompania” Ltd., which is an agent of “Contact-Sever” Ltd. on the basis of an Agency Agreement.

Respondents to the case operate on different markets, buy raw materials from different suppliers and have different pricing policies. Actions of respondents were not known to each other in advance.

None of the companies has the dominant position on the relevant market, and growing prices were caused by the need to cover the costs of purchasing grain and milling products. Actions of “Nyandomskaya Zernovaya Kompania” Ltd., “Contact-Sever” Ltd., “Arkhangelsky Combinat Khleboproduktov” OJSC and “Contact Severo-Zapad” Ltd. towards increasing wheat prices are exclusively the consequences of certain circumstances, equally affecting all economic entities operating on the wheat market, particularly the consequence of increasing the prices for the raw materials used to produce the goods in question.