CARTEL WILL PAY MORE THAN 400 MILLION FINE FOR MAINTAINING PRICES FOR FUEL AND LUBRICANTS

The FAS Russia brought the cartel participants to administrative responsibility

By results of consideration of appeals of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, the FAS Russia ruled against Nova Group LLC, PNT LLC, Belaya Zvezda LCC, NC Union petroleum LLC, Atlant-oil LLC and Fuel Management LLC, who were found guilty in conclusion and implementation of an anti-competitive agreement*.

In the period from February 2016 to September 2019, cartel participants supported prices at 65 auctions for the supply of fuel and lubricants** for the needs of state authorities, federal state-owned, unitary enterprises, state budget institutions, and local governments. The total revenue of the cartel exceeded 900 million rubles.

The amount of fines to the companies amounted to more than 400 million rubles.

“The cartel operated in the territory of the Russian Federation for several years. Among the customers of fuel and lubricants were, among others, utility companies. Purchased fuel at an inflated cost could affect the tariffs for the population,” Andrey Tsarikovsky, Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of the FAS Russia commented.

The FAS Russia has sent the materials of the case on violation of the antimonopoly legislation in relation to organizations to the law enforcement agencies for consideration of the issue of initiating a criminal case.

* Paragraph 2 of part 1 of Article 11 of the Law on Protection of Competition

** Marine fuel, fuel TS-1, gasoline, fuel oil, etc.