29 December 2015
The Firm’s Lawyers Protect the Interests of OJSC Transammiak in a Dispute With OJSC Minudobreniya

The litigation and the competition teams at EPAM have protected the interests of OJSC Transammiak in a dispute with OJSC Minudobreniya over the right of access to the client’s ammonia pipeline transportation services.

OJSC Transammiak owns the Russian part of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline stretching over 1400 kilometers and provides services related to liquid ammonia transportation to the Russian-Ukrainian border for two Russian manufacturers, OJSC Togliattiazot and OJSC Minudobreniya. The latter uses the 141 km from Rossosh, Voronezh Region, to the Ukrainian border to transport its products, while OJSC Togliattiazot supplies ammonia to the pipeline at its starting point in Togliatti. The operator’s income from the ammonia transportation is directly proportional to the transportation distance.

The dispute arose due to OJSC Minudobreniya’s intention to revise the provisions of the current agreement with the client to transport 350 000 tons of ammonia per year. The opponents referred to OJSC Transammiak’s domineering position on the ammonia transportation services market. OJSC Minudobreniya claimed that their rights have been violated since they have to use the railway transport, which is more expensive, to transport the products, which results in lower incomes.

When considering the case for the first time the Supreme Arbitrazh Court quashed the judicial acts forcing OJSC Togliattiazot to enter into an agreement on the terms suggested by OJSC Minudobreniya and referred the case for a new trial to the Samara Region Arbitrazh Court.

At the new trial the courts of three instances and the Russian Supreme Court agreed with the position put forward by the Firm’s lawyers, who managed to prove that the client had no processing capability to increase the volumes of OJSC Minudobreniya’s products transportation, and that the current distribution of the transportation volumes between the manufacturers was justified from the economic and processing perspective.

On December 22, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to examine OJSC Minudobreniya’s appeal.

The client’s interests were represented by the Firm’s counsel Maria Kobanenko and Alina Kudryvtseva, associates Olga Denchenkova, Ksenia Firsova and Alexander Podgorniy under the lead of partners Natalia Korosteleva and Valery Eremenko.

PRACTICE AREAS

KEY CONTACTS

TEAM