Medical pharmaceutical service

History

2024: Fine from OFAS for participation in the cartel during the procurement of the Ministry of Health of the Chelyabinsk region

The Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (OFAS) in the Chelyabinsk Region fined suppliers of medical equipment 36 million rubles for a cartel in the procurement of the regional Ministry of Health. This was announced on May 3, 2024.

According to the Chelyabinsk OFAS, fines were imposed on Medfarmservice LLC, Nika MC LLC, Region-Service LLC, Rome 2020 LLC, Sib-APN LLC, MS LLC, MLT Service LLC, Medservis-Region CJSC, Medproekt-Zaurale LLC, ORBmed LLC. OFAS is in development: Gazneftesnab LLC, Ural Company LLC, TransMed LLC, FortMedTech LLC, Medical Technologies LLC, MTM LLC.

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It is reported that companies in 2020-2021. participated in the auction for the supply of medical equipment and medical devices (for example, endoscopes, X-ray systems, artificial lung ventilation devices, etc.). The total amount of initial contract prices exceeded 500 million rubles.

According to the antimonopoly authority, in most purchases (46 out of 49), the customer was the Ministry of Health of the Chelyabinsk Region. Companies were co-bidding using "waltz carousel" and "sole supplier" behaviours to secure contracts at maximum prices. At the same time, they used a single infrastructure, identical design of the properties of application files, the same phone numbers and email addresses, and also reduced the initial price of contracts by 2-4%.

By the beginning of May 2024, the OFAS is considering cases of bringing to administrative responsibility six more participants in the conspiracy. In total, violations of the law on protection of competition are established in the actions of 17 companies from Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, Kurgan, Orenburg, Yekaterinburg, Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Udmurt Republic.^[1]

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