BULGARIA’S ANTI-TRUST REGULATOR OPENS INVESTIGATION AGAINST PETROL RETAILERS OVER CARTEL SUSPICIONS

Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said on 25th of February it initiated an investigation against 7 of the largest petrol and fuel retailers in Bulgaria over suspicions for a cartel on the market of fuels.

The investigation was opened after an analysis on the market, covering a period of six months, which showed that the companies kept high retail prices for a long time and did not react on time to the decrease in the whole sale prices.

CPC will launch a separate investigation against the oil refinery Lukoil Neftochim – Burgas for potential abuse of dominant wholesale market position, related to selling its products abroad at lower prices than the prices of sales at the domestic market.

From analysis of information from tax warehouses, CPC identified that some anomalies had appeared at the market of fuels since 2013, mostly with 7 companies - Shell Bulgaria, OMV Bulgaria, Rompetrol Bulgaria, local petrol distributor Petrol, Eco Bulgaria, Lukoil Bulgaria and NIS Petrol.

The analysis of CPC identified that although the companies traded with suppliers other than Lukoil, the prices did not change.

The watchdog will also investigate why Lukoil sold fuels in Bulgaria at higher prices compared to the company’s export prices.

If found guilty of price-fixing, each company will be fined of up to 10% from its annual turnover.