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Slovnaft Won't Have to Pay Fine for Alleged Abuse of Market Monopoly
Tuesday 15 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 15 (TASR) - Slovakia's largest oil refiner Slovnaft won't have to pay a fine of €9.958 million for abusing its monopoly of the market that was imposed by the Anti-monopoly Office (PMU) in 2007, Bratislava Regional Court decided on Tuesday, overruling PMU's decision and returning the case to it for further processing.
According to the court, PMU hasn't shown clearly enough what Slovnaft is supposed to have done wrong. In addition, the court didn't agree with PMU's decision to impose a fine calculated from Slovnaft's total turnover, even though the company carries out various business activities.
PMU can't appeal against the decision. "We don't agree with the court's ruling ... We'll analyse it and consider further legal steps," said PMU's lawyer Tomas Britvik, refusing to reveal any further details.
"Slovnaft welcomes the ruling of the regional court, which didn't identify with PMU's decision and accepted the arguments of our company," said Slovnaft spokesman Anton Molnar in reaction to the verdict.
PMU fined Slovnaft for allegedly breaking the competition law by giving varying discounts on wholesale petrol and diesel prices to some of its customers, leaving certain companies at a disadvantage.
It was found that due to a discriminatory discount Slovnaft sold petrol to motor-fuels distributor Shell Slovakia at higher prices per litre than it did to Shell's rival OMV Slovakia.
Slovnaft denied that Shell Slovakia was subject to discrimination, claiming that Slovnaft's discount policy is in line with market principles, and that the refiner incurred costs by providing additional equipment to meet Shell's needs. This was then reflected in the discounts.
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