ART DE LEX lawyers reconciled Global Ports and the FAS Russia

The first container terminal, part of the Global Ports Group, and the FAS Russia approved a settlement agreement on December 12. The Global Ports Group became the first stevedore, that peacefully settled the most complicated dispute with the Russian antimonopoly authority.

ART DE LEX lawyers followed thorugh the entire process for the Global Ports Group. Further agreements on the two terminals of the Group should be concluded in the near future.

Global Ports concluded a settlement agreement with the FAS, which previously accused the company’s First Container Terminal (FCT) of abusing its dominant position and establishing monopolistically high prices for transshipment of containers. In April, the service ordered the FCT to transfer 4.17 billion rubles to the budget, the income received from the provision of related services. The group was also ordered to set economically feasible tariffs for transshipment with a marginal profit level, which had never happened beforee; and to transfer the tariffs from dollars to rubles.

The conditions of the settlemet are not disclosed. However, General Director of Global Ports Mikhail Loganov told the press that the settlement agreement had no negative consequences for the financial situation of the company. "We are satisfied with the terms of the agreement and the switch ot rubles in the procedure," he said.

In April, two more terminals of the group received instructions to transfer their income to the budget - Petrolesport for 1.27 billion rubles, and Eastern Stevedoring Company for 1.6 billion rubles. Thus, the total amount of property sanctions imposed by the FAS on the Group amounted to 7 billion rubles and became the second largest in the history of antimonopoly enforcement in Russia. The decisions and orders on these cases Global Ports also challenges in court. The company expects the approval of the settlement agreements on similar terms soon.

The FAS head Igor Artemyev explained: "The agreement with Global Ports means that the tariff policy changes in favor of consumers, stevedores will turn to rubles gradually and fulfill a number of other standard requirements of the antimonopoly authority."

The bill proposed by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation covers the possibility of postponing the operations to rubles before 2025 for stevedores with currency obligations taken for investment in the infrastructure of seaports.
The mutual agreement of Global Ports with the Russian antimonopoly authority was achieved with the support of the lawyers of the antimonopoly practice ART DE LEX advising the Group on the application of the law on the protection of competition from 2010. Antimonopoly competence of the Firm is one of the strongest, repeatedly marked by the market and independent ratings. Last week ART DE LEX leadership in the sphere of antimonopoly proceedings was reaffirmed by the inclusion in the PRAVO.ru-300, national legal rankings.

"For Global Ports the settlement agreement with the Russian antimonopoly authority is a set of agreements through which they significantly reduced the size of the initially excessive monetary penalty and minimized the risk of possible violations of the antimonopoly legislation in the future due to a balanced system of behavioral obligations that satisfy the FAS and do not impose unreasonable restrictions on the company, "- says ART DE LEX Partner Yaroslav Kulik.

The project was implemented by: group leader, lawyer Kirill Dozmarov, lawyers Anna Mitroshkina and Elizaveta Savina.