The claims of the telecom operators against the defendant are about the unlawful,

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Yesterday, January 16, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rejected a class action lawsuit from 19 telecom operators against the Russian government in a case on invalidating paragraphs 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11 of clause 39 of the rules for non-discriminatory access to infrastructure for the placement of telecommunication networks, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of November 22, 2022 No. 2106.

The plaintiffs were both metropolitan and regional telecom operators: OOO Ayterika, OOO BITREK, OOO VNET, OOO Gerkon, OOO Mosline Group, OOO Goodnet, OOO Eurokabel, OOO Kovrovskaya Telecommunications Company, OOO Koltushsky Internet, OOO KompAs PLUS, OOO KompAs TELECOM, OOO Kuban-Telecom, OOO Multiservis, OOO Orbita, OOO Orgtekhservis, OOO Tekhniko-torgovy tsentr Radiotekhnika, OOO Uzel Svyazi, OOO FTLINK, OOO Elektrosvyaz Montazh i Servis. The defendant's interests in court were defended by representatives of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation (FAS Russia).

in their opinion, tariffs estonia whatsapp number database for providing access to the infrastructure for the placement of telecommunications networks. The plaintiff's representatives referred to the rules that allow PAO Rosseti, PAO Rostelecom and other large companies to determine the procedure for calculating prices for the placement of communications networks on the owner's infrastructure.

Sergey Uchitel, partner at the Pen & Paper Bar Association, explained the meaning of the concept of "non-discriminatory access": "Non-discriminatory access to infrastructure involves ensuring equal conditions for the implementation of the rights of infrastructure users, regardless of their organizational and legal form and legal relations with the owner of the infrastructure. Non-discriminatory access may allow the use of economically and technologically justified differentiated conditions of access. The specified standards are a by-law in the system of legislation on the protection of competition. Therefore, very often issues of their application become the subject of complaints considered by the FAS Russia or judicial authorities."

The defendant's side insisted on the legality of determining the tariffs. However, Dmitry Galushko, CEO of the consulting company "OrderCom", who represented the plaintiff's interests, cited examples of court decisions in similar proceedings on reducing prices for infrastructure repairs. In particular, a 35-fold reduction in the cost of repairing supports (from 60 rubles to 1.37 rubles per support).

"It is no coincidence that the subjects of the appeal of tariffs in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation were small regional operators interested in their revision, who suffer the most from the pricing of larger market players, who are often monopolists," believes Sergei Uchitel.

Having considered the case, the court decided to deny the claim. However, telecom operators have 30 days to appeal the verdict and file an appeal to higher authorities.

Lawyer, economist, member of the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation on entrepreneurship in the field of media communications Pavel Katkov assessed the chances of telecom operators to file an appeal: "When the Supreme Court of Russia has issued a judicial act, it is difficult to talk about an appeal. I do not think that the operators have great chances. But they can generate a discussion between the FAS, Rosseti and the government of the Russian Federation. The plaintiffs managed to attract attention to the problem, at least at the level of PR in the media. Perhaps this was also the bet. The very fact that a group of operators, read competitors, united for a common goal says a lot. Apparently, the problem has matured too acutely, since they united and bear the costs of lawyers and the process."