OREANDA-NEWS. February 04, 2010. The 18th Arbitration Appeal Court allowed the claim of the Chelyabinsk Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) on fining "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. 18.391 million Rubles for violating the antimonopoly law, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Earlier, the Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia discovered that "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd., jointly with an individual entrepreneur F. Kazykhanova, was engaged in concerted actions aimed at maintaining retail prices for petrol and diesel fuel in Chelyabinsk.

The antimonopoly body found that the company violated Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (prohibiting concerted actions) and issued a determination requesting to exclude such antimonopoly violations. Later the Courts of three instances confirmed validity of the decision made by the Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia.

The Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia imposed administrative charges upon "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. for committing the above violation. The antimonopoly body fined the oil company 123.2 million Rubles.

However, "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. managed to challenge the determination of the antimonopoly body in the Chelyabinsk Regional Arbitration Court, which reduced the fine to 4 million Rubles.

Calculating the fine, the Court did not take into account the income obtained by the company through selling oil products with the use of bonus and discount cards on the retail market of oil products in Chelyabinsk.

According to the Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia, it is unjustified and illogical to classify discount sale of oil products with the use of such cards as small-scale wholesale operations outside retail market.

The 18th Arbitration Appeal Court supported the position of the Chelyabinsk OFAS Russia and fined "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. 18.391 million Rubles.