OREANDA-NEWS. October 28, 2009. The Chelyabinsk Regional Arbitration Court supported the position of the Chelyabinsk Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (OFAS Russia) that fined "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. for violating the antimonopoly legislation, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Earlier the Antimonopoly Service found that "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. and an individual entrepreneur Kazykhanova were engaged in concerted actions aimed at maintaining prices for petrol and diesel fuel.

In January-June "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. increased petrol prices on average by 15%. At the same time petrol prices set by an individual entrepreneur Kazykhanova also began to grow.

"The prices per liter of petrol were set similar to a kopeck by two oil companies with one or two days difference one. However, after we opened the case against the respondents, the petrol prices of "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. and an individual entrepreneur Kazykhanova were reduced and stopped being identical, which only confirmed concerted actions between these economic entities", explained Anna Kozlova, he Head of the Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia.

The Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia found that the company and an individual entrepreneur violated Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (prohibiting concerted actions) and issued a determination to stop the violation. Later the courts of three instances confirmed validity of the decision issued by the antimonopoly body.

The Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia fined the violators 123.2 million and 19,000 Rubles accordingly.

The Chelyabinsk Regional Arbitration Court confirmed validity of the determination issued by the Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia on imposing the fine upon "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. but reduced the fine to 4 million Rubles.