Complaint to the FAS: drafting, sample, filing procedure in 2021

Unfair competition is any action aimed at obtaining certain advantages in commercial activities, which contradict the norms of current legislation and create unequal conditions for the development and development of the market. Due to this, a company or individual entrepreneur is deprived of the opportunity to fully promote its services, sell goods and increase its customer base due to their outflow to a competitor, which leads to a reduction in profits or direct losses.

In view of the fact that unfair competition can cause bankruptcy or termination of business activity, if you find yourself in such a situation, you should try to identify the violator as quickly as possible and file a complaint against his actions, which is provided for by the provisions of the antimonopoly legislation. In addition, in the courts you can try to obtain compensation for losses if you can prove that they arose due to the fault of a competitor.

What is the antimonopoly service?

What issues does the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) deal with? The main task of this federal executive body is control and supervision of competition in commodity markets, in the financial services market, as well as control over the activities of natural monopolies and compliance with advertising legislation.

In simpler terms, the antimonopoly service of the Russian Federation closely monitors that Russian enterprises compete fairly with each other. For example, they did not set unreasonably high prices or enter into criminal conspiracy with each other or with government officials.

Where to go

Having identified facts indicating unfair competition, you should take appropriate measures as quickly as possible to protect your business reputation and punish the violator. To do this, you can contact the following authorities:

1. The media (which published deliberately false information).
2. FAS.
3. Court.

Important! If a company or entrepreneur plans to receive compensation for damage suffered, then in any case it will not be possible to avoid legal proceedings.

Main powers of the FAS

The main powers of the FAS Russia are specified in the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On approval of the Regulations on the Federal Antimonopoly Service” and in the Federal Law “On the Protection of Competition”.

So, according to the current legislation, the Federal Antimonopoly Service exercises the following powers:

• Conducting inspections of compliance with antimonopoly legislation by individuals and legal entities, non-profit organizations, extra-budgetary funds, etc.;
• Exercising control over the activities of legal entities ensuring the organization of trade in the markets of certain goods;
• Monitoring the provision and use of state or municipal preferences;
• Initiation of cases of violations of antimonopoly legislation;
• Appeal to the authorities carrying out operational investigative activities with a request to carry out operational investigative activities;
• Appeal to the arbitration court with claims for violation of antimonopoly legislation;
• Participation in judicial review of cases related to the application and/or violation of antimonopoly legislation;
• Maintaining a register of persons brought to administrative responsibility for violating antimonopoly legislation;
• Posting on the Internet decisions and regulations affecting the interests of an indefinite number of persons.

The legislative framework

To file a complaint about unfair competition, you should be guided by the following legislative acts:

1. Constitution of the Russian Federation of December 12, 1993.
2. Civil Code of the Russian Federation N 14-FZ dated January 26, 1996. (as amended on March 28, 2017).
3. Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses N 195-FZ dated December 3, 2001. (as amended on July 29, 2017).
4. Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” N 135-FZ dated 07.2006 (as amended on 07.29.2018)
5. Federal Law “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” No. 59-FZ dated May 2, 2006. (as amended on November 27, 2017).

What can you complain about to the FAS?

In what cases can you contact the Federal Antimonopoly Service? Let's find out!

The official website of the Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation states that citizens can send to the FAS Russia and its territorial bodies:

• Statements - reporting violations of laws or other regulations, reports of shortcomings in the work of the FAS, criticism of the activities of the FAS, etc.;
• Proposals - recommendations for improving the activities of FAS;
• Complaints are requests to protect the rights, freedoms or legitimate interests of a citizen;
• Other requests.

Mass media

If deliberately unreliable or false information appears in the press or the Internet that discredits the image or reputation of a business, then its owner (authorized person) should immediately contact the editor-in-chief of the media to force him to remove such information.

It is preferable that such a complaint be made in writing on company letterhead. Its text should provide reasonable arguments why the information posted is not true, and demand that it be immediately removed or made inaccessible to readers. It is also important to mention that if the media does not publish materials to restore the image and reputation of the business (does not provide an appropriate refutation), then legal proceedings will be initiated to obtain monetary compensation for losses caused by unreliable publication.

To file a complaint with the media, you can use the contact information posted on its website. But if a company (entrepreneur) plans to apply to the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the court to protect its rights and legitimate interests, then it should keep the defamatory publication, which will indicate that a competitor is using unfair methods to promote its goods or services.

Attention! The faster the problem is localized, the less damage from unfair competition will be.

How to write a complaint to the FAS?

Like any other official complaint, an appeal to the Federal Antimonopoly Service is drawn up in free form - the laws of the Russian Federation do not provide for any special forms or templates in this case.

However, if you want your appeal to be written correctly and look more “solid”, we recommend that you be sure to indicate the following points:

• The name of the authority to which your complaint will be sent;
• Your details (full name, place of residence, contact phone number);
• The essence of your complaint;
• Date of filing the complaint;
• List of attached documents (you can use any documents that can support your arguments).

How to file a complaint?

An appeal to the FAS must be drawn up in accordance with the requirements of Federal Law No. 59-FZ dated 02.05.2006 “On the procedure for considering appeals from citizens of the Russian Federation” (hereinafter referred to as the Law on Citizens’ Appeals). Thus, according to Article 7 of this law, a written appeal must contain:

• the name of the government body to which the application is sent, or the full name and position of a specific official;
• Full name of the applicant;
• the postal address of the applicant where the response to the complaint will be sent, and in the case of an electronic appeal - the email address;
• the essence of the complaint;
• list of applications;
• date and signature.

Structure and sample of a complaint

The document structure looks like this:

1. First, the header of the document is drawn up, which indicates the name of the FAS branch and the applicant’s data. To receive a response to your request, you must provide accurate information about yourself. You can send an anonymous complaint to the FAS. In this case, Fas will conduct an investigation into the circumstances stated in the complaint, but will not provide an answer to the appeal.
2. Next, write the title of the document - “Complaint”, after which the main part of the document is drawn up, which sets out the essence of the complaint. The application is written using a business style of writing; the circumstances should be described in chronological order, as briefly and concisely as possible. It is better to support your arguments with references to legislation. It is necessary to indicate specific dates of events, names of organizations and full names of officials against whose actions the complaint is being filed, details of documents related to the appeal (name, number and date). The main part of the appeal should be completed with specific demands: to conduct an inspection, impose sanctions, restore violated rights, etc. Each requirement must be supported by a rule of law.
   In addition, the application cannot contain obscene language, insults or threats, otherwise it may be left unanswered. In general, the appeal is drawn up in free form; there is no normatively approved template for a complaint to the FAS.

   In some cases, when the rights of a group of persons are violated at once (for example, in the housing and communal services sector), it is possible to draw up a collective application to the FAS. The requirements for a collective complaint are no different from the general ones, the only peculiarity is that the full details of each applicant (full name and address) must be indicated and all signatures must be affixed.

3. The final part contains a list of attached documents, a date and a signature.

Sample complaint

How to write and submit a complaint correctly?

How to write and submit a complaint to the tax inspectorate (IFTS)?

Complaint to the antimonopoly service: procedure for filing

You can submit a complaint to the FAS in any way convenient for you:

• In person - contact the office of the territorial branch of the FAS;
• By mail - send a registered letter to the FAS with acknowledgment of delivery;
• Via the Internet - send a complaint to an e-mail address;
• Via the Internet - leave a message in the online reception on the official website of the FAS.

Note! The status of your appeal can be found by calling the public reception desk of the FAS Russia (ext. 2) or in your personal account on their website.

How can I appeal the FAS decision on a complaint?

A decision or order of the antimonopoly authority may be appealed in an arbitration court within 3 months from the date the antimonopoly service made the decision or issued the order. To do this, you must file a claim with the arbitration court at the location of the FAS branch that issued the appealed order.

Like the complaint itself, the statement of claim must be drawn up according to the rules of a business letter, brief, concise and reasonable. It is best to adhere to the following sequence of presentation:

• the header of the document indicating the name of the court, details of the plaintiff and defendant;
• the descriptive part of the application revealing the circumstances of the case;
• the motivational part containing the substantiation of the plaintiff’s arguments and demands, including references to the law;
• pleading part indicating specific requirements regarding the defendant.

After filing an application with the arbitration court, the execution of the antimonopoly authority's order is suspended until the court's decision enters into legal force.

For an individual, the state fee when applying to an arbitration court will be 300 rubles.

Time limit for consideration of a complaint to the Federal Antimonopoly Service

As a general rule, the period for consideration of a complaint by the FAS is 30 calendar days from the date of its registration. However, there are several exceptions to this rule:

• Complaints about violations of the legislation on the contract system in the field of procurement must be considered within 5 working days from the date of receipt of the complaint;
• Complaints about violations of legislation on the procurement of goods, works and services by certain types of legal entities are considered within 7 working days;
• Complaints about violations of legislation on urban planning activities are also considered within 7 working days.

Note! The above recommendations are not exhaustive, since each case is unique and requires a personal approach. If you need additional advice, you can contact the specialists of the CenterSoveta portal and receive free legal assistance.

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How to properly submit a complaint to the Federal Antimonopoly Service in electronic form

The fundamental regulatory act for an entrepreneur who has decided to complain about a violation of Law 44-FZ is Order of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia No. 727/14 dated November 19, 2014. It follows from it that the appeal is made in Russian and must be in writing.

You can also submit an electronic complaint signed with a digital signature. It is certified either by the applicant himself or his representative. In the latter case, a power of attorney is additionally submitted. You can send an application in two ways: through the official website of the service or by mail

Mandatory information is:

• information about the applicant, including postal address, e-mail, telephone;
• information about the person whose actions/decisions are being appealed;
• purchase number, unless the actions of the operator of the electronic platform are appealed;
• the reason for petition;
• documents confirming the applicant's arguments;
• list of attached papers.

On the agency’s website there is a sample of what a complaint to the Federal Antimonopoly Service should look like under 44-FZ.

We recommend looking at a real example - the complaint of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Glison LLC.

View in full

In order for an entrepreneur’s request to be responded to, it must meet not only content requirements. It still needs to be submitted within specific deadlines. Otherwise, the department will refuse, and you will only be able to appeal the customer’s decisions or actions in court.

For convenience, we present the acceptable deadlines for sending letters to the FAS in connection with violations of the norms of 44-FZ in the form of a table

Unfair competition – what is it?

Working in the same field, entrepreneurs inevitably begin to compete.

Individual entrepreneur Abramova bakes cakes to order. Individual entrepreneur Borisova also bakes cakes to order. It is beneficial for each of them that cakes for the holidays are ordered only from her. So manufacturers became competitors for each other.

Normal competition is considered to be an honest struggle between businessmen for customers. For example, when Abramova’s cakes turn out tastier and more economical than Borisova’s. The Competition Law (Part 7, Article 4) tells us that this is permissible.

Unfair competition is discrediting competitors, popularly known as “black PR”, deceiving clients, parasitism on someone else’s popularity and other violations of the law in order to earn more. That is, when, in order to attract customers, Abramova harms someone rather than improves her own product. Both Borisova and baked goods producers in general suffer from this. Such fighting techniques are prohibited by clause 30 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court No. 2 and part 7 of Art. 4 of the Competition Law.

The law describes seven unethical methods of competition - we will discuss them below. FAS suppresses their use due to complaints from competitors. But, besides them, unfair competition also includes any other action of the manufacturer aimed at harming competitors.

When an application may be refused

There are a number of reasons why your application may be denied:

• many attach an emotional color to their statement, use obscene language or insult the offender. All these are very rash and stupid decisions; no one will consider such a complaint;
• the text is unreadable;
• the text is written in transliteration, caps, or is not divided into sentences or paragraphs;
• the application is not filled out according to the form and does not contain all the necessary information;
• the application contains questions that have already been answered;
• if the answer requires revealing state secrets or any classified information, you will receive a refusal.

Deadlines for submission and review

The application received by the FAS must be registered within three days. FAS must consider the received application within 30 days. But due to objective circumstances, the time frame for consideration of the application may be increased by another 30 days. Such a decision can be made by the head of the FAS in order to request additional documents, investigate circumstances, etc.

If consideration of the appeal does not fall within the competence of the FAS, then it redirects it to the institution that is responsible for such complaints. The antimonopoly service is given 7 days for this.

Email

Applicant: LLC "Proizvodstvennaya"

Postal address: 232323, Moscow, st. Academician Koroleva, 15, building 1

Phone/fax: 8 (495) 2563377

Email address: [email protected]

Authorized body: Administration of the City District of Podolsk

Location, postal address: 142100, Moscow region, Podolsk, st. Kirova, 4

Phone/fax: 8 (4967) 555798

E-mail address

Ref. No. 1 From 03/11/2020

Appeal

In accordance with Art. 52 of the Law “On Protection of Competition”, decisions made by the FAS can be appealed to the arbitration court. The deadline for filing an application is limited to 3 months. If there is an appeal against the decision of the territorial body, then the applicant has an alternative: go directly to the court or use the pre-trial procedure and write to the collegial body of the central office.
If a dispute over a decision has already taken place in the FAS, but the adopted verdict did not satisfy you, then now you will definitely have to go to arbitration. Only in this case, the period for applying is limited to 1 month.

The procedure for writing and filing a pre-trial complaint against an existing decision is no different from the scheme described above. The document must also include the necessary information and not use grounds for refusal. The methods of submitting a document are still the same - in person, by letter, electronically. You will need to expect a response within a month, and if there is an objective need to increase the period, then within 2 months.

Consequences of unfair competition

Claims against dishonest competitors are examined by the FAS - Federal Antimonopoly Service. FAS employees will check the complaint and come to investigate the person suspected of unfair competition. They will study the documents and demand explanations. They will issue a warning or order if the claim is confirmed: stop, otherwise - a fine.

For failure to comply with a warning, a fine under Art. 14.33 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation will amount to 12-20 thousand rubles. for individual entrepreneurs and 100-500 thousand rubles. for legal entities.

Fine for failure to comply with an order under Part 2.5 of Art. 19.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation will amount to 10-20 thousand rubles. for individual entrepreneurs and 100-300 thousand rubles. for legal entities.

The violator’s problems will not be limited to an explanation with the FAS and subsequent fines. The injured businessmen will recover through the court the profits lost due to the fault of the offender - in their favor. They already have evidence that their competitor is wrong: those very letters, orders and decisions of the FAS.

Making a statement

In accordance with Art. 199 APC, the claim must contain:

• information about the plaintiff (copy of the applicant’s state registration certificate, documents of the representative);
• name of the FAS department and details of the disputed document;
• list of violations with links to regulations;
• demand to cancel the act, recognize the actions of officials as illegal, etc.;
• petition for suspension of the contested act.

The application must be accompanied by materials substantiating the plaintiff’s position, documents confirming the sending of a copy of the application to the defendant and payment of the state fee.