MOSCOW, September 21 (RAPSI) – Ukraine’s Supreme Court has stricken an appeal filed by Gazprom challenging the lower courts’ rulings over an 86 billion hryvnia (over $3 bln) fine issued by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) against Russian natural gas giant, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court is a final judicial authority in Ukraine; the next possible step is reference to international courts.

Earlier, Yuri Terentyev, the head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU), said that AMCU would demand enforced recovery of the imposed fine from Gazprom in court if the natural gas producer fails to pay it off voluntary.

In 2015, Gazprom was fined by the Antimonopoly Committee for abuse of its dominant position on the gas transit market. At that time, the company was ordered to pay the fine until April 12, 2016. According to a company’s representative, this fine was unexpected since the firm was not engaged in business activity within the Ukrainian territory. Gazprom states that natural gas is being sold to Naftogaz on the Russian-Ukrainian border.

In April the Russian company appealed the fine in the Kiev Commercial Court but the complaint was returned to the plaintiff without hearing. In May, the Kiev Commercial Court of Appeal upheld this decision, and in June the Ukrainian Supreme Economic Court has upheld the lower courts’ rulings.