OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2011. “Rostelecom” OJSC reported to the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Sverdlovsk Region (Sverdlovsk OFAS Russia) had executing OFAS determination on a case on violations of the antimonopoly law and paid over 630,000 RUB as a fine, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

On 25th July 2011, Sverdlovsk OFAS Russia found that “Rostelecom” OJSC, within the в the group of persons with “Uralsvyazinform” OJSC, violated Part 1 Article 14 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

The company changed the conditions of a local telephony contract for providing access to the services of inter-city and international telephone communications. In particular, “Rostelecom” OJSC replaced “MTT”OJSC – the provider of a network of international and inter-city telephone network preliminary selected by the subscribers, with another provider for “Rostelecom” OJSC. As a result, the competitor - “MTT”OJSC incurred losses.

Sverdlovsk OFAS Russia issued two determinations to “Rostelecom” OJSC: to stop violating the antimonopoly law and to transfer the income gained as a result of the violation, to the federal budget.

The Head of Sverdlovsk OFAS Russia, Ms. Tatiana Kolotova, emphasised: “This case is interesting because we were able to suppress unfair competition on the market of international and inter-city communications that was demonopolized several years ago, and it has resulted in reducing the rates for these services”.