The Price of a Monopoly: Why Aluminum Smelters Are Suing Rusal and the Federal Antimonopoly Service
100 billion rubles—that is exactly how much, according to expert estimates, Russian aluminum smelters overpaid for domestic aluminum between 2023 and 2025. From January 2023 through February 2026, domestic prices for the metal exceeded export prices by an average of 12.7%. In 2026, this “processing tax” could cost the industry another 30 billion rubles. These figures directly undermine the competitiveness of the real sector: from the cable industry and packaging plants to the automotive and aircraft manufacturing sectors. In the first four months of 2026, imports of rolled aluminum from China to Russia have already surged by 63%. Russian finished products are less cost-competitive than imports even in the domestic market, which jeopardizes the government’s plans for import substitution by 2030.
KUMZ’s Landmark Lawsuit and the FAS’s Position
The dispute finally entered a fierce legal phase when, on May 18, KUMZ filed a lawsuit against Rusal’s trading house for 4.81 billion rubles, demanding the return of the overpayment as “unjust enrichment.”
KKMP partner Stanislav Dobshevich, who represents the plaintiff’s interests in the Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court, commented to TASS following the preliminary hearing.
“Since 2022, Rusal’s market has shifted to Asia, as confirmed by its public financial statements; however, the company has not lowered prices for Russian consumers: Rusal sells aluminum to China—net of transportation costs—at a lower price than it charges Russian consumers. <…> The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) identified this issue and issued a warning to Rusal, instructing them to change their pricing approach by the end of May, but the company failed to do so. <…> “Our primary goal is to recover this amount and, even more importantly, to change the pricing for the future, because my client manufactures many aluminum components, including for the Russian defense sector,” Stanislav noted.”
This dispute is of key importance to the industry:
Green Light: If the court rules in favor of KUMZ, other processors will have a ready-made legal tool to recover their overpayments.
Regulatory factor: A coalition of consumers shares the plant’s position, and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia has already recognized the claims as valid. The agency ordered the monopolist to change the pricing formula by the end of June 2026, emphasizing that there will be no further delays.
What decision does the market need?
The mechanisms currently under discussion by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Federal Antimonopoly Service are standard in global practice: a transition to the “netback minus” formula (the export price minus logistics costs to the domestic buyer) and mandatory exchange sales to establish a transparent price benchmark.
Industrial sovereignty is based not on the mere fact that a country possesses raw materials, but on their availability to processors. A monopolist should profit from the efficiency of its own production, not from inflating prices in the domestic market.
