Anti-Trust Court finds in PKN ORLEN's favour

ANTI-TRUST COURT FINDS IN PKN ORLEN's FAVOUR

Polski Koncern Naftowy ORLEN Spolka Akcyjna (“PKN ORLEN”), Central Europe’s largest downstream oil company, announces today that the Anti-Trust Court in Warsaw has overturned the decision of the Polish Office for Protection of Competition and Consumers (OPCC) that had accused PKN ORLEN of monopolistic practices in the mono-ethylene glycol market. The OPCC penalty of PLN 40 m is therefore cancelled.

Announcing its findings, dated 13th August 2001, the Anti-Trust court completely overruled the earlier decision of the OPCC (decision No. RWA -17/2000 dated 19th July 2000) which accused PKN ORLEN of monopolistic practices consisting of abusing its dominant position in the domestic mono-ethylene glycol market through unfairly setting the price formula of Petrygo (anti-freeze engine coolant) and raising the price of mono-ethylene glycol (the basic component in the production of the coolant). This finding had resulted in OPCC imposing a penalty of PLN 40 m on the Company (see release dated 20th July 2000).

The Anti-Trust Court agreed with PKN ORLEN’s appeal and its decision was based on the facts that there had been significant procedural violations, significant faults in the decision and a defective sentence that pointed out no monopolistic practices. In particular, OPCC had not proved that PKN ORLEN had derived any unfair benefits from the pricing policy of mono-ethylene glycol and “Petrygo”.