MOSCOW, December 8 - RAPSI. A Moscow commercial court will hold on January 23 primary hearings in Gazprom's application disputing the antimonopoly service's decision on the violation of competition law, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Thursday.

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

In April 2010, Gazprom completed a public tender for bonds placement worth 300 billion rubles ($9.64 billion). Renaissance Capital and Gazprombank won the tender and obtained the right to fulfill Russia's largest bond placement program. This was the largest program on the market.

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 is 118.368 billion rubles ($3.8 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.