News (#07-08 July-August 2016)

Cases

Home Depot sued Visa and MasterCard

Home Depot, the largest US retail network of household goods, has filed a lawsuit against the Visa and MasterCard payment systems.

Visa and MasterCard are charged with corporate conspiracy and blocking access to the market of chipped debit and prepaid cards. For information: a court in Brooklyn, New York City, is currently considering two similar claims against Visa. One is by the company Target, another is by 7-Eleven. All three accuse payment companies of US antitrust laws violation.

 

Mitsubishi to pay indemnification for “fuel scandal”

Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corporation will pay indemnification to owners of several models of car in the amount of 62.5 billion yen (about USD 596 million) because of the scandal over data falsification on fuel consumption. This refers to 4 compact models, including eK-Wagon, eK-Space, produced in the period from mid-2013. In total, under corporation estimations, 625,000 such cars were sold on the Japanese market.

Initially violations during tests on fuel consumption with subsequent submission of incorrect information to technical documentation were identified in the Pajero, in several compact cars of the eK series, as well as in Nissan Dayz car that Mitsubishi developed for Nissan. More than 2 million such cars could have been sold, but their sale is currently suspended.

 

ECHR began considering the case of asset forfeiture in Crimea

On 27 May 2016 the European Court of Human Rights accepted for consideration the claim by OJSC Feodosia shipbuilding company More on abuse of rights by illegal nationalization of its assets on the territory of Crimea by Russia.

“The company made every effort to appeal decisions of the Crimean authorities through legal proceedings in courts of the Russian Federation, however, proceedings data (quite predictably) did not give any result,” senior partner of Ilyashev & Partners and asset manager of FSC More, Roman Marchenko, said.

It is the first time when ECHR shall in essence consider the legality of interference with ownership of FSC More assets by the self-proclaimed authorities of Crimea without compensation of their value, as well as violation of the company’s right to fair judicial examination.

A reminder that the State Council of Crimea in 2014 transferred all movable and immovable property of FSC Morye, located on the territory of peninsula, to its property. Later on by the order of the Chairman of the Russian Federation Government FSC More was transferred to Russian federal property.

 

Lithuania lost to Gazprom in Stockholm arbitration court

The Stockholm Arbitration Court has rejected a claim by Lithuania to Gazprom to pay compensation in the amount of EUR 1.4 billion. The Arbitration Court did not find any fault in the actions of Russian concern, which means Lithuania shall not receive compensation for overpayment, which formed in 2004-2012, when Gazprom supplied gas to Lithuania at inflated price, said Rokas Masiulis, Minister of Energy of Lithuania.

Lithuania is one of the smallest contractors of Gazprom. In 2015 it bought 2.1 billion cubic meters (out of 2.5 of its total consumption, the remaining 0.4 were supplied by Norway).

On the one hand, in the period, which the Lithuanians mention in their lawsuit, Gazprom was the sole gas supplier, and since there were no alternative supplies under other price terms, respectively, it was impossible to determine a fair price for Lithuania. But on the other hand, discrepancy between prices for Lithuania and other Western contractors of Gazprom reached USD 50 per 1,000 cubic meters, despite the fact that the international transit costs for supplies to Lithuania were minimal.

 

4G in Ukraine

The Kiev Administrative Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal of the National Commission for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatization (NCCIR) in its case versus S-line telecom operator.

On 16 February the NCCIR, for the second time, refused S-line in extending its national license in 2.3-2.345 GHz range on the grounds of failing to comply with the requirements of license provisions. License validity expired in April this year. There is no information in the public domain about what kinds of services are provided by the company.

Courts of the first and second instances pointed out that the National Commission was not entitled to refuse extending the period of the license’s validity if one of the following circumstances is available: 1) licensee complies with all provisions specified in the license; 2) provisions specified in the license are not complied with due to reasons beyond the reasonable control of the user.

The Court refers to a letter from Ukrainian State Centre of Radio Frequencies of 3 March 2016, which states that the General Staff did not coordinate the use of radio frequency spectrum of the company for commercial purposes. The Court concluded that the time limit for license development was violated through no fault of the company. Previously S-Line belonged to Ukrainian Beeline. After Beeline merged with Kyivstar, the company turned out to be owned by Russian businessman Yevgeny Roitman.

At the end of 2015 NCCIR began preparations for 4G competitions. In March NCCIR already reserved the first portion of radio frequencies for competition as of the fourth generation connection (4G, LTE), including S-Line frequencies. By the middle of 2017 TV channels will be required to free another portion of frequencies in 700-800 MHz range for mobile communication. And by 2018 all the procedures for tender preparations should be completed.

Back in February the NCCIR did not allow S-Line to start early implementation of 3GPP LTE (4G) radio technology on the entire territory of Ukraine.

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