FBK Legal Successfully Defends its Client's Fishing Rights

The Decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service based on which the client was supposed to be deprived of fishing quotas in the Far Eastern sea basin has been successfully challenged by FBK Legal. On 30 November 2017 the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld a ruling of the Arbitration Court of Moscow.

“This case is one of eight “foreign investor cases” being currently heard in the arbitration court according to the instruction given by the President of the Russian Federation at the meeting of the State Council of the Russian Federation in 2015,” says Elena Shigidina, Head of FBK Legal Corporate Practice. “After this instruction the FAS Russia began to monitor the fishing industry more closely and carry out inspections of fishing companies and their owners to identify possible violations of foreign investment legislation.”

When representing the client in court FBK Legal lawyers managed to prove that the conclusions made by the Antimonopoly Service were based on inapplicable regulations of the Law on Fishing and the Law on Foreign Investments. The dispute is also peculiar because as of the date of the FAS decision the company was not controlled by its former owner who had been qualified by the FAS Russia as a foreign investor.