MOSCOW, May 7 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court has upheld the decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) on Auchan, which was found guilty of violating trade law in 2013, the FAS said in a statement.

The statement reads that one of Russia’s largest foreign retailers took different payments for the same amount of promotional service from dairy product suppliers. The retail chain was issued a warning to amend the violations.

The FAS also instituted administrative violation proceedings against Auchan. The retailer refused to recognize the regulator’s decision and took the case to court, which dismissed it as unsubstantiated.

Before that, the court also dismissed Auchan’s complaint against the decision made by the Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation (Rosalcoholregulirovanie) to bring the retailer to account for deliberately distorting information in its declarations on alcohol marketing.

It was announced in early November 2013 that the Moscow Region Department of Rosalcoholregulirovanie found discrepancies in these declarations.

For its part, the Moscow Region’s Ministry of the Consumer Market and Services suspended Auchan’s license to sell alcohol in the region. The conflict was settled after the retailer amended violations with regard to alcohol marketing declarations.

The Auchan international retail group was established in 1961 by Gerard Mulliez. It runs over 1,200 outlets in 13 countries. Auchan has operated in Russia since 2002, where it has 25 Auchan and 13 Auchan City megastores, two Auchan Garden stores and two Raduga stores as of June 2010.