EPAM' Competition Practice team has successfully defended the large container carrier Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) before the FAS of Russia in a high-profile case related to concerted actions of international sea and ocean container carriers.

On 14 December 2015, the FAS of Russia completed its investigation into suggested concerted actions which led to an increase / maintenance of sea freight costs of a number of international sea and ocean container carriers. The FAS’ claims were based on the fact that the carriers regularly published information on intended General Rate Increases (GRI) on their internet sites, whilst the GRI amounts and dates of implementation predominantly coincided with most carriers.

The Firm’s lawyers represented a group of MSC companies, and in the course of the proceedings managed to convince the FAS of Russia’s Commission that the actions of the client did not constitute a violation. The lawyers developed and presented a comprehensive position, which included both legal and economic arguments to assert the client’s position. Thanks to the well-grounded position developed by the EPAM' lawyers, the FAS of Russia’s Commission decided to discontinue proceedings against MSC in view of no breach of the antitrust law. However, the Commission found violations in the actions of all other defendants.

The Firm’s Competition Practice team representing the Client included counsel Evgeny Bolshakov, associates Grigory Shafeev and Maria Krychkova, and junior associate Igor Gavrilov, supervised by partner Natalia Korosteleva.