Russia VimpelCom Sues Retailer Over Ads For RUB500M-Paper

MOSCOW (Dow Jones)--Russia's second-largest mobile-phone operator OAO Vimpel Communications (VIP) has started a legal action against the country's largest mobile-phone retailer, Euroset, for what Vimpel calls an inappropriate advertising campaign, the newspaper Vedomosti reported Saturday, citing VimpelCom.

In the fall of 2004 Euroset launched an advertising campaign in the cities of Ivanovo and Tula in central Russia asking mobile-phone users to switch from VimpelCom to its rival network, Russia's largest operator, OAO Mobile TeleSystems (MBT), in exchange for $15 to be added to their accounts.

A VimpelCom spokesman told Vedomosti that the company has demanded in its suit to levy 500 million rubles ($1=RUB27.75) in compensation from Euroset for its advertising.

Newspaper Web site: http://www.vedomosti.ru

-Moscow bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; (+7 095) 974 8055; djnews.moscow

Posted to the site on 6th March 2005