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2022: FAS identifies cartel among medical equipment suppliers

On August 9, 2022 Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) Russia , it announced the identification of the cartel in the medical device market. According to the regulator, the conspiracy covered 17 regions of the Russian Federation (,, Moscow Moscow,,,,,,, St. Petersburg Vologda Samara Ryazan Lipetsk Rostovskaya Tula Kemerovo, regions,, Tver ,, territories, Krasnodar Perm Khabarovsk Altai the Republic of Tatarstan and Tuva). The agency recognized the following 11 companies as violating antitrust laws (paragraph 2 of part 1 of article 11 of the Federal Law of 26.07.2006 No. 135-FZ "On Protection of Competition"):

• Bitest LLC;
• MediaTrade LLC;
• OOO "Pulpismed";
• Medgorod LLC;
• Imperia LLC;
• OOO Olltest;
• Global Park LLC;
• Majesti LLC;
• Trastmed LLC;
• Narkolab LLC;
• LLC "Pharmpost."

According to the FAS, these companies in 2017-2019 entered into contracts for the supply of medical diagnostic devices, as well as the necessary consumables for detecting narcotic substances and alcohol. The total value of the contract amounted to 125.7 million rubles. At the same time, as part of the consideration of the case, 3 out of 11 companies voluntarily announced to the department to conclude a competition-limiting agreement, the service added.

The Antimonopoly Service notes that maintaining prices by cartel participants could lead to an unreasonable increase in prices for medical equipment purchased by customers, as well as an increase in budget expenditures and the cost of services provided to the population in medical institutions.

Violators face negotiable fines in accordance with Part 2 of Art. 14.32 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. The materials of the antimonopoly case will be transferred to law enforcement agencies to resolve the issue of initiating a criminal case, the FAS said.^[1]

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