ST. PETERSBURG, September 3 - RAPSI. The Thirteenth Commercial Court of Appeals will consider on October 9 the city antitrust authority's motion against the reversal of its decision that local museums breached competition law by refusing to enter into excursion contracts with an entrepreneur, the Supreme Commercial Court reports on its website.

The St. Petersburg State Museum of History was a plaintiff in the case. Saint Isaac's Cathedral and the Pavlovsk, Tsarskoye Selo and Peterhof estate museums were third parties to the dispute.

Authorities found that the museums violated competition law in December and served as the defendant in the case.

The case was initiated by a businessman that was prevented from entering into excursion contracts. The refusals were made in part because the museum's contractual campaigns had ended for 2011, they said. The museums added that the businessman could not be a party to such contracts, and he had to act as a tourist agent under an agreement with a tour operator.

The authorities considered the arguments to be groundless, as the law does not ban entrepreneurs from conducting excursion activities.

The authorities also held that the individual was unable to learn via open sources the timeframe of the museum's contractual campaigns, which was one reason for the refusal.