Following numerous complaints by some companies concerning the activity of Chelyabenergosbyt JSC, Chelyabinsk Region Federal Antimonopoly Service started investigating the supplier in April 2006. Most complaints had to do with the alleged disadvantageous terms of purchase-and-sale agreements that companies needed to sign in order to buy electricity (extra charge for over- or under-use of electricity compared to the amount stated in the contract, fines for each revealed deviation from the contract, etc.).

As the spokesperson for Chelyabinsk Region Federal Antimonopoly Service said to UrBC representative, the examination of the contracts made it clear that some of the provisos infringe the interests of the consumers and are discriminatory in nature. Following the investigation, the Service compiled a report stating the violations as dictating the terms which don’t comply with the law. Should Chelyabenergosbyt JSC refuse to exclude these terms from their standard purchase-and-sale agreements voluntarily, Chelyabinsk Region Federal Antimonopoly Service will place a claim with Chelyabinsk Region Court of Arbitration demanding that these agreements be declared invalid and unlawful.

Overall, five enterprises have recently applied to Chelyabinsk Region Federal Antimonopoly Service complaining about the disadvantageous terms of purchase-and-sale agreements. Applications made by Chelyabinsk refrigerating company, municipal hospital No. 1 of Zlatoust, Metalplast (a plant of Zlatoust) have already resulted in legal action with charges in violation of antimonopoly legislation, with cases to be heard in June 2006; one case has been dealt with up to the end and resulted in the decree to stop violations and exclude all the offending terms from the contract. This was the case of Chelyabinsk Region Federal Antimonopoly Service and TransServiceEnergo CJSC vs. Chelyabenergosbyt JSC.

Besides, Chelyabinsk Region Federal Antimonopoly Service is acting as the third party in three similar cases; in two of them, the court agreed with the claims and the demands of the plaintiffs, the third case is currently being investigated.