Source: Russia sees Ukraine’s fine for Gazprom illegal

BRUSSELS, Dec 9 (PRIME) -- Ukraine has no right to fine Russian gas giant Gazprom in an antimonopoly case and its court has no competence to consider the case as natural gas transit via Ukraine is subject to the Stockholm Arbitration Court, a source close to the Russian delegation in talks with E.U. and Ukraine told PRIME on Friday.

In 2015, Ukraine’s antimonopoly committee imposed an 85.9 billion hryvna, or $3.4 billion, fine on Gazprom to punish the company for its monopolist position on the gas transit market. Gazprom said then it was baffled by the decision because it does not operate in Ukraine but concedes its gas to state energy holding Naftogaz Ukrainy on the border with Russia. Gazprom challenged the ruling, but all Ukrainian courts dismissed its complaints.

On October 31, the antimonopoly committee doubled the fine by including a penalty for non-payment. On Monday, the Kiev Economic Court obliged Gazprom to pay 171.8 billion hryvnas, or U.S. $6.8 billion in the fine.

But the source said that Gazprom’s relations with Naftogaz Ukrainy under a 2009 contract are considered as contractual, which is regulated by Swedish law. “Correspondingly, all disputes on fulfillment of the contract’s conditions should be considered exclusively by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. These proceedings were launched, and they are not over yet,” the person said.

“This is why all disputes on the case or in connection to the case must not be studied by any other authority until the Stockholm Arbitration Court makes its decision.”

During the Ukrainian proceedings, the antimonopoly committee requested data from Gazprom, and the company asked for permission of the Energy Ministry.

“The ministry rejected provision of any type of data other than public. Gazprom has repeatedly notified the committee of that, but the committee ignored intergovernmental mechanisms for information exchange and made its decision without analysis of the data, which led to an ungrounded and illegal decision,” the source said.

End