MOSCOW, July 2 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Anti-Monopoly Service said on Thursday it would apply to the Higher Arbitration Tribunal to recover several hundred million U.S. dollars from major Russian oil companies due to price-fixing policies.
"As this is a repeat violation, the penalties will be larger," said Igor Artemyev, head of the Anti-Monopoly Service, adding that Rosneft, LUKoil, TNK-BP and Gazprom Neft would all be fined for fixing prices of oil and petroleum products.
"Everything will be decided in the Higher Arbitration Court - we will clearly win this case, and force them to pay penalties. Everything will be resolved by fall," Artemyev said.
In February, the Anti-Monopoly Service accused the four oil companies of unjustifiably raising wholesale prices for petroleum products at the end of 2008 and at the beginning of 2009, and imposed fines on them ranging from 1.1 billion rubles ($35 million) to 1.5 billion rubles ($48 million).
All four companies challenged the service's allegations of breach of anti-trust laws. Currently, litigation is continuing in various courts.
