MOSCOW, November 25 - RAPSI, Natalya Belova. A commercial court registered an appeal filed against lower-court decisions validating the antimonopoly service's decision on a cartel agreement between salt companies, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) on Friday.

On January 20, 2011, the Federal Antimonopoly Service concluded that Mozyrsalt, Belorusskaya Prodovolstvennaya Kompaniya, TDS and Evrotrast Ekspo agreed in February 2010 on the sales of salt produced by Mozyrsalt. The information was reported in the meeting's minutes.

Belorusskaya Prodovolstvennaya Kompaniya, Mozyrsalt and Evrotrast Ekspo requested the court to invalidate the watchdog's decision on the companies' collusion to eliminate competition.

The commercial court dismissed the lawsuits filed by Belorusskaya Prodovolstvennaya Kompaniya and Mozyrsalt on July 27. It dropped the case against Evrotrast Ekspo on the same day, as it entered into a contract with the watchdog in which it admitted to violating the law.

The service reduced the fine against the company to 100,000 rubles ($3,167) from 2.4 million rubles ($76,000). Evrotrast Ekspo confirmed that it violated the law in court.