The Moscow Regional Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, based on a letter from the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs in the Moscow Region Vladimir Golovnev stopped an attempt to abuse the dominant position of a regional operator.

The operator applied to the premises used for the provision of remote trade services, the standard of accumulation of MSW established for consumer service enterprises. For the protection of their rights and legitimate interests, the business entity turned to the Moscow Business Ombudsman.

The premises belonging to the entrepreneur were leased to an economic entity specializing in issuing Internet orders. Back in December 2020, the entrepreneur signed a contract for the removal of municipal solid waste (hereinafter MSW) with a regional operator.

Referring to the order of the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services of the Moscow Region on 09/20/2021 No. 431-RV "On approval of standards for the accumulation of solid municipal waste in the Territory of the Moscow Region" (hereinafter referred to as the Order), the regoperator applied the accumulation standard established for consumer service enterprises to calculate fees for the provision of services.

At the same time, neither the entrepreneur nor the tenant of the premises provided such services.

The businessman asked the regoperator to explain the procedure for calculating the volume of MSW and recalculate it. The operator informed that the calculation was made correctly, and recalculation is not provided. He was recommended to apply for explanations of the procedure to the Ministry.

In response, the Ministry reported that it does not consider it permissible to apply the standard of accumulation of MSW established for consumer service enterprises to the points of issuing orders of remote trade stores and believes that the standard of accumulation of MSW established for office premises should be applied to this room.

The applicant informed the registrar about this. However, there was no response to this appeal for several months, so the regoperator was inactive in violation of the Rules for Handling MSW.

The regoperator is the only supplier for the treatment of MSW, and, therefore, has a dominant position. The Law on the Protection of Competition prohibits the abuse of a dominant position, including by imposing unfavorable terms of the contract.

The Commissioner had reason to believe that the actions (inaction) of the operator may contain signs of abuse of a dominant position.

The Business Ombudsman sent a letter to the Moscow Regional Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia with relevant arguments and a request to verify the legality of the actions (inaction) of the regoperator and take antitrust response measures if necessary.

The Moscow Regional Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia issued a warning to the regoperator, which was executed by the regoperator by sending the applicant a signed supplementary agreement to the contract regulating the relations of the parties that arose after 12.21.2020.

Violation of the rights and legitimate interests of the entrepreneur has been terminated.