In December, the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said the three firms had violated the country’s competition legislation having agreed on coal prices. It also said the companies’ revenues from the deal exceeded RUB 100 million. SUEK has denied participation in price collusion, saying it did not have enough time to provide full information to the FAS. The company has also said the watchdog referred to the sales of about 200,000 metric tons of coal in 2009 out of 87 million mt it sold that year. If the companies’ guilt is proved, they could face a fine of 1% to 15% of revenue.
