Commission for Protection of Competition found abuse of dominant position of Lukoil Group

The Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) found an abuse of a dominant position of the Lukoil Group. This was established by the antimonopoly body, based on the results of initiated antitrust proceedings.

The CPC also announced that given the socio-economic importance of fuels and their direct impact on the prices of goods and services offered on the Bulgarian market, an analysis of the competitive environment of the markets in the chain of sales of automotive fuels was made.

The Commission has found that the Lukoil Group has the largest storage and related transport infrastructure, making it the dominant enterrise in the automotive fuel storage market. The companies in the group have abused their dominant position through a set of actions, such as non-provision of services for reception and storage of fuels in their own tax warehouses, restriction of access to tax warehouses connected to the largest offshore oil terminals in the country and non-provision of access to the oil pipelines of the group for transportation of imported fuels, the conclusion of the CPC says.

According to the CPC, the established practices represent a general strategy of the group for creating barriers to the import of fuels in the country and should be qualified as one violation, as they are aimed at the same anti-competitive result.

The analysis of the antitrust authority also states that these actions of the Lukoil Group restrict competition at the first level in the chain of sales of petroleum products - in production and imports, which allows maintaining the leading position of the Lukoil Group in the country at the next levels - wholesale and retail.

The creation of barriers to the import of fuels in the country is of a nature to lead to a redirection of demand for fuels of local origin, ie. those of Lukoil Neftochim Burgas AD. This reduces the choice of wholesalers and accordingly shifts down the sales chain of automotive fuels and ultimately to consumers.

The conduct constitutes an abuse of dominance, both under national law and under European Union law, as restricting imports into the country can significantly affect the pattern of trade between Member States, the commission said.

The company has the right to respond to the allegations within 60 days.

Чуйте последните новини, където и да сте!
Последвайте ни във Facebook и Instagram
Следете и канала на БНТ в YouTube
Вече може да ни гледате и в TikTok
Намерете ни в Google News