The EPAM Competition Team is representing a coalition of several companies in a unique case against Yandex over the company’s abuse of its dominant position on the internet search market, in a case initiated by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS).

In August 2020, a coalition of companies comprising Avito, IVI, CIAN, Profi.ru, Tutu.ru, Drom.ru, 2GIS, and Zoon filed a complaint with the FAS in relation to Yandex's abuse of its dominant position.

The claimants referred to the fact that the IT giant had been able to create preferential conditions for its services in the Yandex search engine through the use of special interactive blocks, the so-called search engine wizards.

At the end of February, the FAS issued a warning to Yandex, demanding that it eliminates the said violation and provides all market participants with equal opportunities to promote their services in search engine. Yandex failed to comply with this requirement in time, leading to the FAS opening a case against the company for violating antimonopoly legislation on 13 April 2021.

“This is a precedent-setting case in terms of both its scale and the challenges that need to be addressed. Being able to determine the terms on which to secure a level playing field in the search engines market for own and third party services means laying down the rules of the game for the dominant players in digital markets of the future. This complex task has not yet been addressed by any regulator in the world, yet the FAS has repeatedly driven decisions that are recognized as gold standard by the regulators globally. We are confident that such a decision will be arrived at in this instance also”, said Head of EPAM Competition Practice Natalia Korosteleva.