ALRUD successfully defended the interests of AGC Glass in FAS Russia (Federal Antimonopoly Service) and secured the dismissal of its case of cartel collusion

ALRUD represented Japanese company AGC Glass, the world leader in the production of construction and automotive glass, in the FAS Russia (Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation) in an antitrust investigation regarding alleged existence of an anti-competitive agreement.

In 2016, a competitor of our Client applied to the FAS Russia with a complaint on the alleged violation of antitrust laws by our CLient. According to the competitor, the Client entered into an anti-competitive agreement with another market player aimed at violating of the competitor’s rights, by depriving him from discounts on purchased goods.

To investigate the complaint, the FAS Russia conducted a number of unscheduled inspections in respect of AGC Glass, which ALRUD lawyers took part in. ALRUD controlled legality of the actions of the FAS Russia employees and the accuracy of actions of our Client’s employees. After these inspections, the FAS Russia initiated a case on antitrust violation against AGC Glass and its competitor. The FAS Russia also sent requests to foreign antitrust authorities in order to check whether the Client obeys foreign laws.

The ALRUD team developed a comprehensive strategy to protect the interests of our Client. It included legal surveys of AGC Glass employees, requesting information from all other contractors, receiving objective feedback from counterparties about the Client's price policy, analyzing of data for several previous years, etc.

3–15%
of turnover This was the amount of the fine that could
have been imposed on AGC Glass,
if the alleged violation had been confirmed.

ALRUD's position and strategy of action, combined with the evidence gathered, clearly demonstrated to the FAS Russia the absence of any antitrust violation in the Client's actions. Further, it was determined that the case applicant had tried to use the FAS Russia to unreasonably obtain additional discounts.

The prompt and concerted actions of the ALRUD team convinced the FAS Russia to terminate the case due to the absence of any violation of antitrust laws. As a result, the no fines were imposed on the Client.

“Thanks to the joint efforts and coordinated work of our Antitrust and Dispute Resolution practices, we were able to dismiss the cartel case. Such a dismissal is now considered to be a rather rare event in the practice of the FAS Russia.” German Zakharov, ALRUD Partner, commented.

The case was quite complicated since a cartel can be concluded in any form, which means that any evidence (including electronic correspondence) can be used as confirmation of the existence of the cartel. Therefore, ALRUD lawyers carefully analyzed the vast amount of documents and provided detailed explanations for each of the documents collected by FAS Russia.

In this matter, the ALRUD’s team was headed by German Zakharov, Partner of the Competition/Antitrust Practice, and Sergey Petrachkov, Partner of Dispute Resolution Practice. The team also included representatives of Dispute Resolution Practice, namely, Denis Bekker, ALRUD Associate, and Anastasia Chagina, ALRUD Senior Attorney.