MOSCOW, November 24 - RAPSI, Alyona Yegorova. A commercial court has dismissed a Danone subsidiary's lawsuit against a state procurement tender on baby food, Vladimir Damilov, the CEO of the successful tenderer, told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI).
Nutricia, a Danone subsidiary, has contested the validity of a state procurement tender for baby food supplies in 2011 from which it was barred. The company has asked to terminate the relevant public contracts. The Moskva Zlatoglavaya trading house won the tender to provide free baby food to Moscow residents.
According to Kommersant's earlier reports, the orders for children's dairy products in a 2010 annual tender were awarded to Wimm-Bill-Dann and Moskva Zlatoglavaya. The latter is 20-percent owned by the Moscow government and supplied by French Nutribio. Both have been supplying Moscow baby food centers since 2002.
Nutricia's products were barred from the auction as they did not meet the customer's requirements.
Danone told RAPSI that it seeks to "secure fair competition both for itself and the other tenderers."
Established over 100 years ago, Nutricia specializes in producing food for babies and infants. It has operated in Russia since 1994 and been a part of the international Danone food group since 2007.