KIEV (Sputnik) — The economic court of Kiev was due to open hearings in the Ukrainian Anti-Monopoly Committee's (AMC) lawsuit to recover $3 billion from Gazprom on Monday, November 21.
"The case is postponed to December 5, 11:20 a.m. [09:20 GMT]," presiding judge Oksana Marchenko said, citing the need for the lawyers representing the plaintiffs and the defendants to prepare arguments.
In December 2015, AMC chief Yuriy Terentyev said that Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz had suffered an estimated $6 billion in alleged damages as a result of Gazprom's abuse of its monopoly over gas transit in the country. Gazprom called the move a pressure tactic, arguing that it does not conduct any business on Ukrainian territory because it transfers gas to Naftogaz at the Ukrainian-Russian border.
AMC said in August it drafted a lawsuit to recover 85 billion hryvnia ($3 billion) from Gazprom for allegedly abusing its dominance in the Ukrainian gas transit market. Both the Kiev Economic Court and the Supreme Economic Court have dismissed Gazprom's appeals to review lower court rulings.
On October 31, an AMC representative requested the court to seek an additional $3.4 billion from Gazprom as a 140-day late fee.
