KIAP lawyers represented the interests of the retailer in a series of odious cases of antimonopoly violation and administrative liability for creating discriminatory conditions for suppliers of fish and fish products.
In fact, this is the first case of the Russian FAS in relation to the Trade Law, which was new at the time of its initiation and with which the antimonopoly authority tested the main prohibitions established for retail chains. We can say that on the basis of this case, the law enforcement practice of administrative and judicial authorities began to take shape on the issue of qualifying the provisions of contracts between retail chains and suppliers as creating discriminatory conditions for suppliers. As a result of the consideration of this case, the previously existing contractual structures of largest Russian retailers were significantly changed, since the experience of our client allowed determining the limits of acceptable behaviour of retail chains in relations with suppliers.
It is worth noting that, just like the main case, the case of bringing to administrative liability was followed by the entire Russian grocery retail industry for five years. The case was considered three times by the Moscow District Arbitration Court, since the cassation court sent it for a new trial twice.
As a result, 63 administrative fines totalling 126 million roubles issued against our client were declared illegal by the court despite the fact that the courts recognized the decision of the antimonopoly authority, which served as the basis for initiating administrative cases, as legal.
In total, more than 2,500 volumes were collected (in the case of an antimonopoly violation) and 1,500 volumes (in the case of administrative liability) during the two trials, respectively, which makes these processes one of the largest in terms of the amount of evidence presented.
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