Lithuanian court upholds 35-mln-euro fine on Russia's Gazprom
Xinhua, November 10, 2015 Adjust font size:
Vilnius Regional Administrative Court has rejected on Monday the appeal from Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom contesting a fine that Lithuanian competition watchdog had imposed on the company.
"Competition Council's decision regarding Gazprom is legitimate," announced the court leaving the Russian state-owned gas company with the fine of around 35 million euros (37.68 million U.S. dollars).
In 2014, Lithuania's top competition authority declared that Gazprom had violated Lithuanian competition provisions and imposed a fine of 35.7 million euros on the company.
According to the council, Gazprom had a duty to allow gas consumers buying gas from the other suppliers. The competition watchdog announced that Gazprom's refusal to negotiate with the company Lietuvos energijos gamyba on natural gas supplies' swap for the period from 2013 to 2015 prevented the company from buying natural gas from other suppliers.
In its claim to Vilnius Regional Administrative Court, Gazprom argued that Competition Council's ruling was illegitimate.
The decision can be appealed in coming 14 days, announced the court.
Gazprom's representatives in Lithuania declined to comment before local media as to whether the company will appeal the ruling.
Before launching its liquefied natural gas terminal at the end of 2014, Lithuania was fully dependant on natural gas supplies provided by Gazprom. Endit