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Moscow hotels fined for hiking prices for World Cup

The hotels have been fined for a total of $105,500

© Alexander Demyanchuk/TASS

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Russia's consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has fined Moscow hotels for a total of almost 6 mln rubles ($ 105,569) for overpricing in the run-up to the FIFA World Cup, the watchdog reported.

"The total sum of the imposed administrative fines is 5,948,200 rubles ($105,569)," the federal service reported following checks conducted by its Moscow branch.

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Hotel prices in Volgograd soar by 20 times for 2018 World Cup, administrative case opened

The Moscow branch carried out 127 checks when preparing for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the report says. Based on these checks, 198 legal bodies and 181 office holders were brought to account for violation of the consumer protection law and the health requirements.

Russia's consumer rights watchdog first released data on fines for overpricing in Moscow hotels ahead of the FIFA World Cup. Several hotels in other regions had already been fined, a press service representative specified.

The hotel prices are regulated by the government’s order, with the maximum tariffs starting operating one month before the World Cup. The fine for exceeding this level is 50,000 rubles ($887) for officials and for legal bodies it is twice as much as the proceeds gained from overpricing.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will run from June 14 to July 15 in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg and Sochi.

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FIFA World Cup 2018 World Cup in Russia

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