OREANDA-NEWS. March 21, 2013.  The Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District forwarded for reconsideration to the Court of First Instance a case on invalidating a decision and determination issued by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) regarding “Russian Railways” OJSC upon the facts of mass refusals to grant applications of consignors for freightage by railway transport in the carrier’s cars, to be paid at the rates set by the Federal Tariff Service.

On 22nd November 2011, FAS found that the natural monopolist in freight railway transportation - “Russian Railways” OJSC violated the antimonopoly law.

The case was initiated upon signs of violating the antimonopoly law by a group of persons comprising: “Russian Railways” OJSC (a natural monopolist – a railway cargo carrier, the owner of the railway transport infrastructure), “Freight One” OJSC (a rolling stock owner), “Federal Freight” OJSC (former “Freight Two” OJSC) (a rolling stock owner).

The case was initiated upon numerous petitions of consignors, the executive bodies of the constituent territories of the Russian Federation on reduced availability of freightage by railway transport with uncontrolled increase of freightage costs. Petitioners also complained that the natural monopolist unreasonably avoided accepting, agreeing upon and executing applications for freightage by the inventory fleet possessed by the carrier under the right of ownership and (or) any other lawful right.

“The Courts of lower instances did not examine the impact of the actions of “Russian Railways” OJSC upon the economic situation. For instance, as a result of anticompetitive actions of “Russian Railways” OJSC availability of services for large consignors decreased from 90% to 60 % and from 75-80 % to 30% for small and medium business. The costs of cars increased twofold while transportation costs grew by up to 30%”, pointed out Deputy Head of FAS Anatoly Golomolzin.