Competition Authority Ruling
Total Fina Elf.
1 April 2003
Clarification
Paris, April 1, 2003 - France's Competition Authority has issued a ruling
that imposes a fine on four oil companies for 'collusion in setting fuel
prices' in highway service stations between January 1999 and June 2000.
TotalFinaElf, for its part, was fined euro 12 million.
TotalFinaElf would like to strongly emphasize the following points:
1- The Group denies and has always denied the existence of an organized
system for exchanging information among competitors that would in any way
have undermined free competition on highways.
2- It does not collude and has not colluded in any way with other operators
to fix prices on highways.
3- It has done nothing more than collect information on prices displayed by
other service station operators, which is a normal part of doing business in
a competitive environment.
The similarities noted among fuel prices can be explained by objective
reasons that were recognized by the Competition Authority itself in its
notice dated May 16, 2000:
* High fuel taxes.
* Operating constraints specific to highway service stations, such as
round-the-clock and year-round opening hours, special charges and
supplementary costs related to station specifications.
* Similarity in re-supplying conditions.
* Similarity of the products (i.e. fuels) sold.
After studying the Competition Authority's ruling, TotalFinaElf reserves the
right to file an appeal with the Paris Court of Appeals.
This information is provided by RNS
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