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Siemens accused of unfair competition on Russian market — source

The source said that the company’s charter does not allow using equipment made by other producers, which means its operations are virtually blocked

© AP Photo/Matthias Schrader

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has received a request to check Siemens AG for unfair competition on the Russian market of automatic process control systems for power plants, a source in Interautomatika told TASS.

Interautomatika operates on the market of development and introduction of automatic process control systems for power plants using technologies and products of Siemens Group. In July 2017, in light of the scandal regarding turbine supplies to Crimea, Siemens AG announced plans to withdraw from the Russian firm Interautomatika (45.72%). JSC ‘All-Russia Thermal Engineering Institute’ VTI and Technopromexport (TPE) are two other shareholders in Interautomatika, with 36.94% and 17.34% stakes, respectively. The source said that the company’s charter does not allow using equipment made by other producers, which means its operations are virtually blocked.

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A source in FAS press service confirmed such a request had been received, adding that it is being considered, but no inspection is underway. "FAS has received a request from an economic entity. It is being considered now. FAS is not performing any inspection at the current moment of time regarding the issue," the source told TASS.

"Despite the announcement on withdrawal from Interautomatika’s capital, so far Siemens AG has not taken any real steps as the German company still retains the status of the biggest shareholder, which means that Siemens has virtually blocked the operations while the Russian side is suffering losses. Obviously, other stakeholders cannot be satisfied with the state of affairs," the source in the antimonopoly regulator said.

"A request has been submitted to FAS to explore the situation as such actions of the German company damaging the interests of other shareholders of Interautomatika may be qualified as elimination of a competitor from the Russian market for redistributing orders to the benefit of its subsidiaries," he added.

According to the source, in August Siemens AG and its Russian subsidiaries submitted letters to Interautomatika informing it about suspension of all economic operations and contractual commitments.

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