OREANDA-NEWS. November 03, 2011. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) initiated a case against “TNK” Trading House” CJSC, “OMK-Stal” OJSC, “Izhora Pipe Works” CJSC and “CHELPIPE” Group” CJSC upon the signs of violating Clause 3 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The companies concluded agreements that could have led to dividing the market on a geographic principle, volume of sales, the range of goods and sellers’ categories, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The case was initiated upon materials of unscheduled inspection of suppliers of large-diameter pipes in September – October 2011. “Gazprom” OJSC is the main consumer of such pipes, which are used for construction main gas pipelines.

In course of the inspection, FAS discovered certain documents; according to which before “Gazprom” OJSC organized the procedures of competitive purchasing, Russian producers of large-diameter pipes coordinated the schedules of supplying large-diameter pipes to “Gazprom” OJSC in 2008 - 2011.

Supplies of large-diameter pipes to “Gazprom” OJSC were divided between Russian pipe companies under the geographic principle (depending on the title of a gas pipeline project), volume and range of goods (depending on the size and strength class of large-diameter pipes) and suppliers’ categories.

Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits agreements between economic entities or concerted actions of economic entities on the market, if such agreements or concerted actions lead or can lead to dividing the market according to a geographic principle, volume of sales or purchasing of goods, the range of goods or categories of sellers of buyers (customers).

Thus, FAS identifies the signs of antimonopoly violations in the actions of “TNK” Trading House” CJSC, “OMK-Stal” OJSC, “Izhora Pipe Works” CJSC and “CHELPIPE” Group” CJSC.

“Effectively, market participants refused to compete and coordinated their activities, which undoubtedly has the sings of restricting competition”, said the Head of FAS Department for Industry Control, Maxim Ovchinnikov.