The Moscow Arbitrage Court has approved the terms of a settlement agreement between the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) and Vostochnaya Stevedoring Company (VSC) in respect of the findings of FAS in April 2017 that VSC was in breach of the anti-trust legislation in relation to the pricing of stevedoring services.
‘Although the specific terms of the agreement are confidential, the Group can confirm that the terms of the settlement will not have any material impact on the Group’s financial position or cash flow and will not negatively affect VSC’s operating activities in any significant way’, said Global Ports in a statement.
In April 2017 the anti-trust authorities also found two other Group’s terminals, VSC and PLP, to be in breach of the antimonopoly legislation in relation to the pricing of stevedoring services.
FAS claimed the terminals set and kept tariffs for handling containers on a monopolistic high level and ordered the terminals to transfer to the federal budget the money they earned using their dominating market position. VSC was ordered to pay 1.27 bn rubles.
The Group challenged the FAS findings with respect to each of FCT, VSC and PLP and appealed against the orders in court.
Recently, Global Ports has reached a settlement agreement with the Federal Antimonopoly Service on FCT.
The Group said in a statement it expects that PLP will reach a settlement with FAS on similar terms in the near future. Court hearings on the subject are scheduled later this month.