MOSCOW, February 14 – RAPSI. The Moscow District Federal Commercial Court has upheld the verdict in the tax case concerning the Auchan retailer, a court official told RAPSI on Thursday.

The court has thus rejected the Federal Tax Service's appeal, ruling that the service overcharged the major company by roughly 500 million ($16 mln) rubles. On September 3, 2012, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals upheld the Moscow Commercial Court's verdict in the case dated June 4, 2012. The court also upheld Auchan's request to annul the September 14, 2011 decision of the Federal Tax Service's inter-district inspectorate.

The service's decision to collect 483.5 million rubles ($16 mln) in tax arrears was declared null and void.The plaintiff decided not to request the court to annul part of the appeal concerning the proposal to pay 2.07 billionn ($66,5 bln) rubles in tax arrears and 540.5 million rubles ($18 mln) at a court session on May 28, 2012.

The tax inspection checked Auchan's records from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2009 during a visiting session. After the inspection, the officials decided to bring the retailer to court for tax crimes.

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