The performance from year to year

Objective

Our client, a large trading company, requested our assistance after court of the first instance and the appeal court upheld the view of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service that a cartel agreement had been established in the caustic soda market, with the aim of dividing the market and fixing prices. We set out to reevaluate the arguments used and to establish a new approach to the case, formulating a position that would enable us to convince the court of cassation to annul previous judgments. Had our client lost the case in the court of cassation, they would have been obliged to pay a fine of nearly 1 billion Rubles.

Resolution

Instead of focusing on formal violations committed by the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, we concentrated on the caustic soda market peculiarities. The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service claimed that our client was the cartel organizer, so its position in the dispute was used as the basis by other companies accused of participation in the cartel agreement. A systematic view of the caustic soda market and thorough analysis of the case materials enabled us to formulate the defense anew and to arrange a series of clear and logical arguments that persuaded the cassation court to return the case to the court of the first instance for a review. During the new court hearings, we organized all the evidence presented by the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service and the caustic soda market participants, jointly making up over 400 volumes of court materials, and proved to the court that there was no cartel agreement in place and the market players acted independently.

Result

The client was released from the obligation to pay the fine of nearly 1 billion Rubles and could continue its operations in the caustic soda market. The resolution of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service damaged our client’s reputation in the market and the result of the hearings allowed for the reputation to be restored. It must be noted that the dispute was of utmost importance to the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service also, since prior to the completion of the proceedings the Service referred to the case as a landmark case, claiming that this was the largest price fixing agreement exposed in Russia.