MOSCOW, March 12 - RAPSI. The Federal Antimonopoly Service has postponed for two months the Auchan case over the trading law violations, the service's deputy head Andrei Kashevarov told journalists.

Kashevarov said experts need some time to analyze a large scope of the information obtained during the investigation.

He added that in view of the uncovered facts the service decided to separate the case of ATAC, Auchan's retail subsidiary.

In November the service opened a case against Auchan and Atac on suspicion of breaching the law On Fundamentals of State Regulation of Commerce, which, in the service's opinion, boil down to the creation of discriminatory conditions for food suppliers.

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

ATAC comprises the Atac and Simply Market supermarket chains and is an Auchan subsidiary.