OREANDA-NEWS. May 18, 2010. The Federal Arbitration Court of the West Siberia District confirmed legitimacy of the fined imposed by the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Tyumen region (the Tyumen OFAS Russia) upon "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. for price collusion. The size of the fine is around 10 million Rubles, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Earlier OFAS Russia established that in January - June 2008 "Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. jointly with two other operators of service station in the region ("AZS-N1" Ltd. and "Gazpromneft -Tyumen" OJSC) fixed and maintained the same prices for petrol in Tyumen and the Tyumen region. For the antimonopoly violation all three collusion participants were imposed fines. "AZS-N1" Ltd. was fined around 3.5 million Rubles (paid) and "Gazpromneft -Tyumen" OJSC - 16.5 million Rubles (paid).

"Lukoil-Uralnefteproduct" Ltd. lodged a cassation appeal insisting on reducing the fine from 10 to 4 million Rubles as in the company's opinion the officers of the antimonopoly body wrongly defined the market for calculating the fine (based on the income gained on the market where the violation was committed). The Court dismissed the arguments of the company.