Megafon will cancel additional payments for subscribers in Crimea and Sevastopol at the request of the FAS

“The mobile operator submitted a letter to the Federal Antimonopoly Service on the execution of the order to abolish the markup for the use of communication services in Crimea and Sevastopol. The company will cancel roaming no later than February 28, 2025. FAS considered the implementation period to be technically determined,” the statement said.

While subscribers are in these regions, minutes, SMS and gigabytes will be spent from the package or paid according to the standard terms of the tariff plan, the service added. Previously, Beeline also fulfilled its demands: the operator will voluntarily write off the margin and, from January 1, 2025, will bring tariffs to the level of the home region.

In late October, the FAS reported that the regulator recognized that Megafon and MTS violated antitrust laws because they began charging additional fees to subscribers in Sevastopol and Crimea “in the absence of economic, technological and other justification.” The department clarified that Megafon charged 2.2 thousand rubles for 1 GB of mobile Internet, MTS – 1.2 thousand rubles, and Beeline – 140 rubles per day.

MTS RB.RU reported that in those regions where the operator does not have its own infrastructure (including Sevastopol and Crimea), it bears the costs of access of its subscribers to the infrastructure of other operators. Documents confirming these expenses were transferred to the MTS by the FAS. The operator is appealing the service’s decision in court.