OREANDA-NEWS. September 04, 2014. The Arbitration Court of Moscow District dismissed cassation appeals of the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) and “Aerotrans” Civil Aviation Centre for Production-Dispatching Services” OJSC.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) found that Rosaviatsia violated Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” by granting priority access to information for “Aerotrans” OJSC and assigning some functions of Rosaviatsia to the commercial organization.

Having investigated the case, the Antimonopoly Service established that “Aerotrans” OJSC and Rosaviatsia concluded an agreement on cooperation and a paid services agreement.

Having investigated the case, the FAS Commission established that the functions of Rosaviatsia, related to issuing flight permits that should be free-of-charge, were transferred to a commercial organization - “Aerotrans” OJSC. Thus, the company processed and registered the necessary documents on a paid basis under agreements with air space users.

The FAS Commission also established that “Aerotrans” OJSC has a Compliance Certificate for providing the services for organizational support of flights and is an economic entity that renders services on the relevant market. Market players include over 60 economic entities that have relevant certificates. “Aerotrans” OJSC concluded agreements with other market participants for the flight support services and the services for obtaining permits for unscheduled (one-time) flights.

Thus, “Aerotrans” OJSC enjoyed priority access to the information that presumes commercial information about aviation enterprises and the planned flights.

The Antimonopoly Service also found that Rosaviatsia and “Aerotrans” OJSC violated Article 16 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” in the part of the agreement that could have resulted in preventing, restricting and eliminating competition.