The panel of judges of the cassation business court, which is part of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, has dismissed an appeal on a point of law of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine in the case seeking to collect a fine of UAH 1.3 billion from PJSC Ukrtatnafta, PJSC Galychyna oil refining complex and four more companies for collusion at crude oil and gas condensate auctions in March-July 2015.

According to data in the unified register of court rulings, in particular, according to a court ruling dated May 8, the panel concluded that during the investigation the committee did not study factors affecting the behavior of bidders, such as the price of oil and petroleum products as of the date of the auction, the price of oil and petroleum products on the global market, its fluctuations and fluctuations of the national currency.

In addition, the committee did not investigate the issue of the need of Galychyna oil refining complex for crude oil at the time of bidding, as well as the volume of purchases and terms of payment. Also, according to the panel of judges, the committee did not substantiate the relationship between the participants in the auctions.

"The appeal of the committee shall not be upheld, and the appealed decisions and rulings of previous judicial instances are unchanged due to the failure to prove the proper grounds for their revocation," the court said.

As reported, in August 2017, the Kyiv business court overturned the decisions of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to collect fines in the amount of UAH 1.003 billion from PJSC Ukrtatnafta, UAH 326.929 million from Galychyna oil refining complex and UAH 41.744 million from another four companies for concerted actions at auctions for the sale of crude oil and gas condensate in March-July 2015. Later, this decision of the court of lower instance was upheld by the Kyiv business court of appeals.