Commission suspends decision in NLMK market dominance case

MOSCOW, Nov 1 (PRIME) -- The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), an executive body of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), has suspended a decision in an abuse of market dominance case of Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) on request of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the commission said in a statement on Wednesday.

In September, the commission imposed a fine for violation of competition rules on the EAEU market of grain oriented steel on NLMK and its affiliate VIZ-Steel and said that the companies abused their monopoly position on the market from January 2015 through June 2016 and provided unequal conditions for buyers from different countries of the union.

An NLMK spokesperson told PRIME that the company competes with suppliers from China, South Korea, Germany, and Poland at the EAEU markets, and its prices are lower than the prices of competitors.

“NLMK delivers grain oriented steel to the market of Kazakhstan at prices based on market instability, irregularity of purchases, a low payment discipline of local buyers, and on other factors, which we explained to the commission in detail, but they decided to ignore the explanation completely,” the spokesperson said.

“A ruling of the Federal Antimonopoly Service regulates prices for grain oriented steel in Russia, and limits NLMK ability to index the prices. The EAEU has no such restrictions, which makes the discrimination conclusion senseless, as the national and supranational regulations are different meaning there is no common ground for comparison.”

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