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Alfa Bank Leads in Interpreting
Nizhni Novgorod Division of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) focused yesterday on the standing of Alfa Bank on plastic card market. In local ad spot, Alfa Bank called itself the leader of the plastic card market of Russia. FAS thought it was too much and pressed for supporting facts. In its turn, Alfa Bank requested to close the case, as according to its own poll, it is the market leader in Nizhni Novgorod. Alfa Bank also submitted linguistic conclusion to prove that a word “leader” could be interpreted as No. 5 and No. 6 on the market.
The action brought in by the local FAS late January is based on the saying “Alfa Bank is the leader on the plastic card market of Russia” broadcasted in Nizhni Novgorod’s air by the Silver Rain radio station.
In the FAS hearing held in Nizhni Novgorod, the bank was represented by Evgeny Kulikov, deputy head of the legal department at Alfa Bank. Kulikov read linguistic conclusion made out by the Vinogradov’s Institute of Russian Language at Russia’s Academy of Science. The conclusion specifies that, in the ad spot context, the word “leader” couldn’t be interpreted in superlative degree. The words “leader” and “one of the leaders” are synonyms, stressed the lawyer. Moreover, Kulikov submitted results of the sociological survey carried out by Alfa Bank in Nizhni Novgorod, which shows that 62 percent of respondents consider Alfa Bank the leader of the card market.
But the essence of the FAS claims against Alfa Bank is not the superlative degree but inadequate information disseminated by the bank in its promotion, pointed out Vadim Soloviev, deputy head of the local FAS. “Alfa Bank is only the fifth among Russian banks in number of plastic cards released and the sixth in number of operations made through the cards,” Soloviev quoted data of the Central Bank of Russia submitted by Alfa Bank to prove its leadership.
Nevertheless, Kulikov filed a motion to dismiss the charge. Nizhni Novgorod’s FAS ruled to proceed with the action till May 5, to study details.
In the head office of FAS, they told Kommersant Alfa Bank may win the case. However, in the action vs. Antenna-Telesem newspaper, which had called itself the best TV guide of the country, FAS resolved that the largest circulation in Russia doesn’t prove it is the top guide on TV. Therefore, FAS and Alfa Bank may differ in leader’s interpretation as well.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 08, 2005
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