OREANDA-NEWS. May 04, 2009. The Federal Arbitration Court of the Urals District confirmed legitimacy of the decision and determination by the Sverdlovvsk regional Office of FAS Russia regarding "Yekaterinburgnefteproduct" OJSC (a subsidiary of "Gazprom Neft" OJSC) and "LukoilPerm'nefteproduct" Ltd., reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The oil companies tries to appeal to the Cassation Court the rulings of the Courts of the First and Second Instances that also confirmed the rightness of the conclusions made by the antimonopoly body.

In November 2008, the Sverdlovsk Regional Appeal Court did not accept the arguments presented by the oil companies and confirmed validity of the decision of the Sverdlovsk OFAS Russia that had found that "Yekaterinburgnefteproduct" OJSC and "LukoilPerm'nefteproduct" Ltd. violated the antimonopoly legislation. On 27th January 2009, the 17th Arbitration Appeal Court upheld the ruling of the Court of lower instance.

In July 2008 the Sverdlovsk OFAS Russia pronounced that that "Yekaterinburgnefteproduct" OJSC and "LukoilPerm'nefteproduct" Ltd. violated Clause 1 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition". The compnies were engaged in concerted actions towards fixing the same prices for oil products on the retail market of oil products in Yekaterinburg.

The antimonopoly body issued determinations to the companies requesting them to stop the violations by liquidating possibility of repeating the actions on fixing the prices that regularly match the prices of the company's competitor.

The Sverdlovsk OFAS Russia also fined "LukoilPerm'nefteproduct" Ltd and "Yekaterinburgnefteproduct" OJSC 22.9 and 6 million Rubles accordingly.