The FAS identified a violation under paragraph 4 of Article 16 of the Law on Protection of Competition: restriction of access to the product market, exit from the product market or elimination of business entities from it. Judging by existing practice, this is one of the rarest points of this article on which decisions are made. It is extremely difficult to establish the fact of such a violation and prove it. However, the Volgograd defendants left so much behind that they left themselves no chance.
It was found that the companies that are part of the Clean City Group of Companies and operate local landfills entered into a cartel agreement and created intolerable conditions for the then existing regional operator, the Citymatic company. By illegally limiting operating hours and closing entry for garbage trucks to its facilities, Clean City artificially provoked an environmental crisis and, ultimately, with the actual support of local authorities, ensured the change of the regional operator to one of its subsidiaries – the same EcoCenter LLC. Citymatic had no chance to extricate itself, since the approved territorial scheme provided for the conclusion of contracts exclusively with the companies of the Clean City group, which provided the latter with great opportunities for manipulation, and placed Citymatic in a vulnerable position in advance.
Local officials actively helped Clean City to squeeze out its competitor from the Volgograd region. Their interest and close connection with the company became obvious already at the moment of choosing a new regional operator. The appointment of EcoCenter LLC took place without any competition literally in one day. The company had not yet started work, and various goodies rained down on it as if from a cornucopia. For example, the fee for providing a bank guarantee for EcoCenter was set 100 (!) times lower than for the previous regional operator, despite the fact that no tariff adjustments were made. In addition to this, contracts were concluded with the company, without tendering, for the removal of waste allegedly left over from the activities of the previous reoperator. The amount of the contracts amounted to 236 million rubles and was clearly overstated, despite the fact that in addition to payments from the budget, the operator collected money for waste removal from the population. The FAS does not say directly, but it becomes obvious that all this became possible solely with the approval, and possibly with the direct participation of the governor of the Volgograd region, Andrei Bocharov. 
The most interesting and, probably, fateful thing in this story is that the FAS not only identified violations, but also ordered, by May 1, 2024, to cancel the order of the Volgograd Regional Committee for Nature Protection to assign EcoCenter LLC the status of a regional operator. This means that from last year until today, EcoCenter not only operates illegally in the region, but also does not have any legal tools to collect fees from the population for its services. In addition, it provides these services, to put it mildly, unsatisfactorily, as evidenced by regular and numerous complaints that the company simply ignores.
We are closely monitoring the development of the situation, and until May 1 there is time to study how the work of the “Clean City” is organized in other regions. Something suggests that the methods there are very similar to the Volgograd region.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
