MOSCOW, January 19 - RAPSI, Alyona Yegorova. The Collection Development Center challenged the dismissal of its defamation $0.3 lawsuit against the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare.

The plaintiff holds that the statements about the collectors' activity made by the Service head Gennady Onishchenko are damaging the center's business reputation, its director explained to RAPSI.

The Moscow Commercial Court dismissed its lawsuit in August and the decision entered into force in October.

At the March 14 press conference Onishchenko said that collectors intimidate people, engage in "telephone terrorism", threaten them with placing them on a "black list" and the denial of foreign passport which is to make impossible any travelling abroad. Onishchenko called such practices totally unlawful.

The collection center wanted the service to publish on its website a refute saying that the actions described by Onishchenko are performed by some collectors, rather than all of them, and add "The Collection Development Center is not among them".