February 17 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition authority said on Friday that it imposed a fine of 67.8 million levs ($36.9 million/34.7 million euro ) on Lukoil Bulgaria, a unit of Russian petroleum company Lukoil, for abuse of dominant market position.
The company implemented a comprehensive strategy to limit competition in the wholesale trade of motor fuels in the country, the Commission on Protection of Competition (CPC) said in a statement.
Following an extensive enquiry, the antitrust regulator found that Lukoil Bulgaria had applied a price squeeze on its local competitors in the motor fuels wholesale market, which may have prevented, limited or disrupted competition, eventually harming the interests of end users.
The CPC considers that the only interest of Lukoil Bulgaria, which controls more than 50% of the market, was to eliminate its competitors and, in the long term, unilaterally impose higher prices on consumers, the regulator noted.
The CPC issued an initial ruling against Lukoil Bulgaria in September, following complaints by the local subsidiary of Austrian oil, gas and petrochemical group OMV and Bulgarian fuel and oil products retailer Insa Oil.
The regulator's intervention prevented Lukoil Bulgaria from gradually gaining full control of the wholesale market of motor fuels in the country through a new pricing policy introduced in 2021, the CPC noted. According to the antitrust watchdog, the enquiry resulted in Lukoil Bulgaria correcting its market behaviour on the market.
The decision may be appealed before the Sofia Administrative Court within 14 days.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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