MOSCOW, March 26 - RAPSI. The Moscow District Federal Commercial Court will hear on April 19 an appeal filed by the VimpelCom telecommunications operator against judicial acts affirming the antimonopoly service's resolution that it violated the advertising legislation.

In June 2011, the Federal Antimonopoly Service ruled that VimpelCom and the Mobile Dialog company breached the antitrust law and fined each company 100,000 rubles ($3,450) for inappropriate advertising of the "SMS chance" lottery without obtaining customers' consent.

The companies challenged the resolution in the Moscow Commercial Court. However, lower courts upheld the watchdog's decision. VimpelCom later filed an appeal against judicial acts.

The antimonopoly service found that the company advertised the lottery by sending text messages through the Beeline mobile network in May-June 2010. The subscriber was to send a text message in order to take part in the lottery.

The antimonopoly watchdog opened a case against the operator after it received a complaint from a customer. He claimed the mobile operator sent him advertising messages without his consent.

Neither VimpelCom nor Mobile Dialog could disprove the man's complaint, the watchdog said. Therefore, the watchdog ruled that the companies violated the law on advertising.

VimpelCom is one of Russia's largest integrated telecommunications services operators offering a wide range of wireless, fixed, and broadband services. Its sole shareholder is Dutch Vimpelcom Ltd.