OREANDA-NEWS. On February 09, 2009 the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Tambov Region (the Tambov OFAS Russia) initiated a case against "Tambovnefteproduct" CJSC for violating Clause 1 Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" by fixing and maintaining monopolistically high prices for oil products, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Weekly monitoring of retail and wholesale prices for oil products in the Tambov region has proved that "Tambovnefteproduct" CJSC, which has dominant position on the market of oil products in the Tambov region, has been fixing high prices for the distributed oil products without any objective reason.

For instance, in September 2008 - January 2009 purchase wholesale prices dropped by 39.8 - 45.9%, while retail prices for the oil products distributed by "Tambovnefteproduct" CJSC went down by 19.1 - 25,5%.

Also, from 19th January 2009 to 28th January 2009 "Tambovnefteproduct" CJSC increased ex-factory wholesale price for diesel fuel (grade DT(L) from 11 500 Rubles to 15 000 Rubles per ton (by 21.7 %). The purchase price for diesel fuel (grade DT(L) in this period remained unchanged at 11 200.56 Rubles per ton.

The case hearing is scheduled for 25th February 2009.