OREANDA-NEWS. August 09, 2012. Moscow Arbitration Court confirmed legitimacy of the decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) on bid-rigging. The case was initiated upon a petition of a bidder of an auction for the right to use a subsoil site. The auction was organized by the Natural Resources Department of the Smolensk Region, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia. 

The head of a company stated in the petition that prior to the auction he repeatedly had meetings with the competitor, as a result of which the bidders devised a “conduct scenario” for the auction.

Both auction bidders were brought into the proceedings as the respondents; the petitioner confirmed the statement disclosed in the petition, while the second participant denied it.

The FAS Commission concluded that both participants of the oral anticompetitive agreement violated Clause 2 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” (bid-rigging).

The petitioner was relieved of administrative liability due to “confessing” to FAS Russia (under the Notes to Article 14.32 of the Code on Administrative Violations). FAS imposed a turnover fine upon the second participant.

Moscow Arbitration Court pronounced legitimacy of the FAS decision, underlying that the fact of an anticompetitive agreement does not depend on whether an agreement was concluded in the form of a contract concluded under the rules specified by the civil law. The Court judgment also stated that the antimonopoly authority must not substantiate adverse consequences to prove an anticompetitive agreement.