Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service instituted legal proceedings against UC RUSAL Trading House; the company is suspected of abusing its dominant position on the aluminum market.

The FAS looked into a complaint placed by one of aluminum consumers and determined that UC RUSAL Trading House violated Article 10 (part 1, paragraphs 3 and 8) of the Competition Protection Act, namely, it infringed upon its contractor the terms of aluminum supply agreement that were not beneficial for the contractor or not related to the subject matter of the contract. What is more, the alleged offender created discriminating terms for various aluminum consumers.

The complaining applicant feels that the infringement of disadvantageous agreement terms consisted in UC RUSAL Trading House’s persistent refusal to ship the products from the plant that was most geographically suitable for the consumer and the company’s insistence on shipping from the most geographically remote plants, which led to a substantial increase in the price of transportation and thus weakened the consumer’s position on the aluminum powders market.