Russia: DFAS to impugn law on prohibited areas of beer selling and drinking

Krasnoyarsk Territory law "About the determination of the list of catering places where retail sale, glass filling and drinking of beer and beer beverages are prohibited" is not worked through and is a method of unfair competition, as Oleg Kharchenko, a deputy-head of Directorate for Federal Antitrust Service (DFAS) of Krasnoyarsk Territory, stated, Newslab released August 03.

DFAS has claims to the second point of Article 1, where the Legislative Assembly charged local self-governments with the right to establish the boundary of areas close to establishments and organizations where retail sale and beer drinking are prohibited. 'In practice it looks in the following way: Divnogorsk mayor did not like a shop where beer was sold. Its owner was a relative of the editor of an oppositional newspaper. It was done so that only that the law was enforced in that shop only,' Kharchenko noted.

The antitrust service sent a request to Ministry for Justice of the Russian Federation which checked Point 2 of Article 1 and found it contradictory with the federal laws. DFAS is also supported by Public Prosecutors' Office. 'This law is not clear at all. The law author – Deputy Alexei Kleshko – just transferred the list of prohibited places without mentioning that it is not allowed for the under-aged to drink beer at all. Certainly, he considers point two a novelty since he charges local self-government with the rights to determine the list of places. In practice it proves a reason for free interpretation of the law. And various discussions of it only distract us from serious work,' the deputy-chief of DFAS stressed.

It is worth reminding that the Arbitrage Court will consider the suit of DFAS against Legislative Assembly about admitting that point 2 of article 1 illegal.

In Krasnoyarsk the list of places where it is banned to sell and drink beer was approved of in July.

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