MOSCOW, March 27 - RAPSI. A commercial court has upheld the decision by the antimonopoly watchdog to fine the Tyumenenergo electricity distributor $31.5 million for violating antitrust laws.

The court sided with the Federal Antimonopoly Service's arguments that Tyumenenergo had breached competition law.

The watchdog found the company guilty of violating the antitrust law on August 1, 2011 as a result of the proceedings initiated at the request of Gorelektroset located in the city of Nizhnevartovsk.

Tyumenenergo was fined 922.9 million rubles ($31.5 million). Meanwhile, the antimonopoly service emphasized that it had done its best to take all the facts of the case into account to allow it to impose the most effective and fair punishment.

The service noted that the fine amounts to 6% of Tyumenenergos 2010 earnings on the power distribution market.