OREANDA-NEWS. March 22, 2013. The Expert Council at the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) for Developing Competition in travel industry held a meeting.

Attendees included representatives of the apparatus of the Committee on Economic Policy, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship at the State Duma, the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; the Department of Hotel Industry and Tourist Infrastructure of Moscow Committee on Tourism and Hotel Industry; the Federal Tourism Agency; Russian Tourist industry Union (RST); the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR); and representatives of the business community.

The Council discussed the ‘problems of restricting competition on the market of tourist services in the field of outbound tourism associated with the amount of contribution to the compensation fund of the Association of Tour Operators in the Field of Outbound Tourism”. The issue was included in the Expert Council’s agenda after a group of tour operators, representatives of small and medium business involved in outbound tourism had petitioned to FAS Russia.

The tour operators reported discriminatory conditions on the market of tourist services in the part of fixing the minimum contribution of tour operators to the compensation fund at 100,000 Rubles. The norm is established by Article 114 of No.132-FZ Federal Law “On the Fundamental Principles of Tourist Operations in the Russian Federation” of 24th November 1996, according to which the compensation fund is formed through contributions from tour operators in the amount of 0.1% of the annual sales of tourist products gained by each tour operator, but no less than 100,000 Rubles.

FAS supported the initiative of the expert Council to exclude the provision from the Law establishing the minimum amount of contribution for the tour operators included in the Register of Tour Operators at 100,000 Rubles. The provision puts market participants in unequal conditions since 0.1% of a turnover of small companies working as tour operators in the field of outbound tourism often is below 100,000 Rubles.