OREANDA-NEWS. September 14, 2009. The Federal Arbitration Court of the Central District confirmed validity of the decision and determination issued by the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly service in the Belgorod region (the Belgorod OFAS Russia) regarding sellers of oil products in Stary Oskol ("Oskolneftesnab" OJSC and "Starooskolskaya Neftebaza" Ltd.), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia. 

The Belgorod OFAS Russia found that "Oskolneftesnab" OJSC and "Starooskolskaya Neftebaza" Ltd. violated Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (prohibiting competition-restricting agreements or concerted actions between economic entities).

The Commission of the antimonopoly body discovered that the companies simultaneously fixed and maintained retail prices for oil products at service stations in Stary Oskol 11 times without any objective grounds.

The Belgorod OFAS Russia issued a determination to the oil companies to stop the actions that were in breach of the antimonopoly legislation and imposed "turnover" fines for the total amount of 6.5 million Rubles.

According to Sergei Petrov, the Head of the Belgorod OFAS Russia, after the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of Russian passed the ruling of 30th June 2008 on applying the standards and norms of the antimonopoly law by the antimonopoly authorities; it is much easier to prove at court the fact of concerted actions, aimed at restricting competition. In the Belgorod region they set a case in precedent, enabling the antimonopoly bodies to actively discover and suppress cartels not only in the market of fuel and lubrication materials but also other goods markets.