FAS Russia initiated a case against St Petersburg Veterinary Department

On 19th August 2010, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) initiated a case against St Petersburg Veterinary Department upon the signs of violating Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The case was initiated upon a petition of the “Union of Zoological Business Enterprises” Non-Commercial Organization . Part 1 Article 15 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits restrictions on formation of economic entities in any field of activity and bans or restrictions of certain types of activities or production of certain types of goods.

St Petersburg Veterinary Department included the norm for mandatory permission for exercising activities on animal registration and vaccination (permission for anti-epizootic actions) in the Instructions “On approving Administrative Regulations of St Petersburg Veterinary Department for executing the state function of organizing anti-epizootic and other veterinary efforts including prevention and liquidation of centres of infections common for humans and animals, and protecting St Petersburg from importation of infectious animal diseases”.

According to the Instructions, in order to obtain such permission economic entities must also obtain an Act of Inspection of Conditions for Anti-Epizootic Actions, which is issued by veterinary stations for a fee.

Normative legal acts of the Russian Federation do not provide for issuing any type of permissions for activities on animal registration and vaccination.

The case is scheduled for 9th September 2010.

Reference:
Anti-epizootic actions – a package of planned actions aimed at prevention, detection and elimination of infectious animal diseases, including disinfection and elimination of the sources of infectious diseases and germ transfer factors, and improvement of general and specific resistance of live-stock animals to pathogenic microorganisms.