The Irkutsk FAS office found 11 companies guilty of coordinated actions in the retail gasoline market. The antimonopoly authority said sellers kept prices high despite lower wholesale prices, and in Irkutsk fuel was sold at the same prices and with similar discounts. The companies were ordered to stop these actions, and the fine will be set in administrative proceedings.
The Irkutsk Region office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service has found 11 companies guilty of coordinated actions in the retail gasoline market.As a reminder, in February 2009 the Irkutsk FAS opened a case against retail gasoline sellers who last winter kept retail fuel prices unchanged despite a drop in wholesale prices. The antimonopoly service concluded that there was collusion in the retail petroleum products market of the Angara region to obtain an unreasonably high margin.
Initially, five companies were named in the case. However, during the investigation, the FAS found that under the OMNI brand, which came to the antimonopoly authorities’ attention, several companies were operating, linked by complex partnership relations. Thus, according to the FAS, not five but as many as 11 independent companies sold fuel in Irkutsk at the same price, with the same discounts, and changed price tags on the same dates by the same amounts.
The violators have been ordered to stop coordinated actions to set retail prices in the Irkutsk fuel market. These companies will also have to pay a fine - the amount will be determined within the framework of administrative proceedings.