OREANDA-NEWS. March 09, 2010. The Arbitration Court of the Tyumen region pronounced validity of the fine imposed by the Tyumen Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (OFAS Russia) upon "Sevregiongaz" CJSC. In December 2009 OFAS Russia fined the company 11 million Rubles for abusing market dominance and infringing consumer interests (Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition"), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Dominating the market for sale of natural gas in the Tyumen region (without autonomous districts (okrug's), "Sevregiongaz" CJSC imposed disadvantageous conditions of a gas supply contract upon its counteragent ("Zolotoi Kolosok" Ltd.) "Sevregiongaz" CJSC did not agree upon the volume of fuel required by "Zolotoi Kolosok" Ltd. in 2009. The gas supply contract specified the volume of gas half as much as requested by "Zolotoi Kolosok" Ltd. In the preceding year the consumer used more gas than was allocated to it according to the supply contract.

Under the Gas Supply Rules, counteragents are fined for the gas taken in excess of the average daily set rate. The cost of the gas takes in excess of the set limit increases by 1.5 times.

Investigating the case, the Tyumen OFAS Russia established that when gas is allocated, preference should be given to those consumers who had concluded supply contracts for preceding periods and the actual consumption in the preceding year must also be taken into account.

At the time of allocating gas to its consumers, "Sevregiongaz" CJSC was aware of the overall volume of available gas so it could have allocated the product observing legitimate interests of all counteragents. However, it did not agree with "Zolotoi Kolosok" Ltd. upon the gas volume, which the company could expect. For the gas taken in excess of the rate set for 2009, "Sevregiongaz" CJSC rendered an invoice to the counteragent requesting to pay forfeit penalties. Such actions of "Sevregiongaz" CJSC infringed the interests of "Zolotoi Kolosok" Ltd.

Under the Code of the Russian Federation for Administrative Violations, for such breach of antimonopoly law legal entities are punishable by a fine in the amount from one hundredth to fifteen hundredths of the income gained from selling goods of services in the market where the violations was committed.

Reference:
Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" prohibits actions (omissions) of economic entities with dominant market position that have resulted or can result in preventing, restricting or eliminating competition and (or) infringing the interests of other persons.