The EPAM competition team were able to secure the dismissal of a major 2020 antimonopoly case in the food retail industry. The case was initiated in May 2020 by the Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia against Spar and Magnit over an alleged cartel conspiracy regarding the increase in the price of buckwheat.
The case resulted from a large-scale All-Russian investigation into the price increase of buckwheat from March-May 2020 and was considered in the context of the regulator’s focus on the pricing of staple food products.
EPAM attorneys representing Magnit managed to prove a lack of uniformity and synchronicity in the retail chains’ behavior, as well as the economic impossibility of collusion between Magnit and Spar. As a result, on 8 February 2021, the Chelyabinsk OFAS dismissed the case against the defendants.
The successful outcome for the client can be attributed to the EPAM competition practice team which included Associates Igor Gavrilov and Oxana Akhmedova, Partner Evgeny Bolshakov, and Head of Practice Natalia Korosteleva.
