OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2014. The 9th Arbitration Appeal Court confirmed legitimacy of determinations of the Moscow Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (Moscow OFAS Russia) to fine two cartel participants 26.5 million RUB.

Moscow OFAS Russia exposed a big-rigging cartel at an auction for integrated maintenance and cleaning of outdoor common areas in the “Airport” district.

The antimonopoly body established that “Petrovsky Park” Ltd., “Communal Service” Ltd., and “PromStroiTorg” Ltd. exchanged information and used common infrastructure filing price bids. It resulted in maintaining prices at the auction and helped “Petrovsky Park” Ltd. win the auction with only 1.5% reduction of the original contract price. Upon the fact of the cartel, each participant was fined 26.5 million RUB.

“Communal Service” Ltd., and “PromStroiTorg” Ltd. attempted to prove at Court that the size of the fine was determined wrongly and requested to reduce the fines. The 9th Arbitration Appeal Court, however, considered the arguments put forward by the claimants unreasonable since the antimonopoly body determined the size of the fines under the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations at 25% of the original contract price.

Thus the Courts of two instances consistently confirmed legitimacy and reasonableness of the determinations issued by Moscow OFAS Russia.