The St. Petersburg Arbitration Court overturned a 4.7 billion ruble ($163.8 million) fine imposed on Gazprom Neft by the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service for violating antitrust laws, the company said Thursday.
“Based on revision of all the arguments, the court came to the conclusion that the acts put forward by [the service] against Gazprom Neft were unlawful and unfounded,” Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of gas giant Gazprom, said in a statement.
The fine was imposed for violations that allegedly took place earlier this year.
A spokesman for the anti-monopoly service, Sergei Noskovich, said the body will proceed with an appeal, pointing out that two Gazprom Neft subsidiaries have already paid smaller fines for the same issue.
“We will appeal against the verdict. Gazprom Neft-Kuzbass and Gazprom Neft-Ural have paid more than 70 million rubles of fines after they were unable to win court cases against the service,” Noskovich said.
The fines were a part of a broader campaign by authorities battling high petrol prices amid the economic downturn. In November last year, the watchdog also slapped Gazprom Neft with a 1.3 billion ruble fine for breaking competition laws on the domestic oil product market. The fine is being challenged in a court.
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