MOSCOW, November 10 - RAPSI, Alyona Yegorova. The court will hear on December 8 Gazprom's lawsuit against the antimonopoly watchdog, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI). In its lawsuit, the gas monopoly challenges the watchdog's resolution that it violated competition law while holding a tender for bonds placement.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service decided in September 2011 that Gazprom violated competition law while holding a public tender for bonds placement, the watchdog reported.

In April 2010, Gazprom completed a public tender for bonds placement worth 300 billion rubles ($9.9 billion). Renaissance Capital and Gazprombank won the tender and obtained the right to fulfill Russia's largest bond placement program.

Meanwhile, the antimonopoly service found that Gazprom illegally overestimated the criteria to be met by bidders and thereby broke the standard procedures for determining a winner.

Gazprom declined to comment on the situation.

Gazprom's authorized capital amounts to 118.368 billion rubles ($3.9 billion) split into roughly 23.674 billion ordinary shares with a nominal value of five rubles.
The federal government owns an over 50-percent interest in the company.