OREANDA-NEWS. November 15, 2013. Moscow Arbitration Court supported the position of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) on a case against the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimuschestvo) that violated the procedures of an open auction for sales of released military immovable property and the procedures for concluding a contract.

On 29th May 2013, FAS investigated a complaint about Rosimuschestvo under Article 18.1 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” and found that Rosimuschestvo violated Articles 15 and 16 of the Law on privatization. The information notice published by the auction organizer in the official bulletin of the Agency – “State Property” lacked information about payment deadlines, bank account details for buying-and-selling contracts, the contract period and other information.

From 1st January 2013, information about open auctions for sales of such property must be published at the official web-site on sales of privatized state or municipal property - www.torgi.gov.ru. Rosimuschestvo, however, failed to place such information.

The Federal Agency also obligated the buyer to cover the costs of independent evaluation – 21.200 on top of the payment for the property. The Law on privatization does not allow such actions of auction organizers.

FAS issued a determination to Rosimuschestvo to eliminate the violations but the Federal Agency disagreed with the arguments of the antimonopoly body and filed a lawsuit. Moscow Arbitration Court confirmed legitimacy of FAS actions and dismissed the claim.

The Head of FAS Department for Control over Housing & Utilities, Construction and Natural Resources, Vadim Solovyov, commented the Court judgment: “The Court supported the position of the antimonopoly body that released immovable military property must be sold in accordance with the Law on privatization, and that information in the open auction must be published at www.torgi.gov.ru. It increases the number of auction bidders and ensure transparency of the procedures that lead to healthy competition”.