The Federal Antimonopoly Service has discovered a cartel agreement in the rolled metal market.
The service found that the seven largest companies involved in the sale of ferrous and non-ferrous metals entered into and implemented an agreement restricting competition. As a result, metal traders were brought to administrative responsibility under Art. 14.32 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, the punishment was imposed in the form of a turnover fine (percentage of proceeds). The corresponding message was published on the official website of the state body.
Also, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) indicated that it had sent materials to law enforcement agencies to consider the presence in the actions of cartel participants of signs of a crime under Art. 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Restriction of competition"). The total amount of the fine for an administrative offense amounted to about 1.8 billion rubles, under Art. 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, officials are also threatened with a fine, or forced labor or imprisonment for up to three years. It also provides for the possibility of imposing additional punishments - deprivation of the right to engage in certain activities, deprivation of the right to hold certain positions. If there are qualifying signs (use of official position, use of violence), the punishment is tougher, a maximum of seven years in prison can be imposed.
The press release states that all seven companies acted in concert, entered into an anti-competitive collusion, the purpose of which was to keep the aggregate price at the auction. They succeeded in their plans, and the implementation of the antimonopoly collusion continued for a long time. The largest fine, a little over a billion, will be paid by A Group LLC, the smallest (within this case) by UMS LLC - 17.5 million rubles.
This is not the first time that large metal traders have been brought to administrative responsibility for violating antitrust laws in recent times. Literally in December, A Group LLC, along with six other companies, two of which are the largest metal traders, was already involved in similar violations. Then the director and owner of "A Group" Alexei Zaitsev told the press that he intended to appeal the decision of the service, since the price increase was caused by market factors, in particular, world prices. In addition, the current legislation, when imposing a fine, does not take into account the degree of participation in collusion.
The company also intends to appeal the current decision, especially since it was made on the basis of the decision of 01/13/2022, which was recognized by the Arbitration Court as illegal (the FAS appealed this judicial act).
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