Moldova Fines Six Fuel Retailers $27 Million for Price-Fixing

Moldova’s competition authority has imposed fines totaling 481.4 million lei ($27 million/25 million euro) on six local fuel retailers for engaging in an anti-competitive agreement. The fined companies include Lukoil Moldova, Bemol Retail, Datario, Petrom Moldova, Rompetrol Moldova, and Tirex Petrol.

An investigation, which began in 2021, revealed that these retailers coordinated the prices of petroleum products sold to customers. Between 2019 and 2021, the companies made several rounds of price changes that were identical in value, occurring both consecutively and simultaneously.

Related: StarKist and Former Bumble Bee Foods Owner Settle US Price-Fixing Suit

“The arguments put forward by the companies were not accepted by the Competition Council, because the justifications brought by them could not plausibly explain the similar behavior in several companies. The Council therefore found that such conduct would have been impossible in the absence of an agreement between the competitors,” the Competition Council stated.

The fines are as follows:

• Bemol Retail: 29 million lei
• Datario: 1.1 million lei
• Tirex Petrol: 1.5 million lei
• Petrom Moldova (a unit of Romania’s OMV Petrom): 77.8 million lei
• Rompetrol Moldova (a subsidiary of KMG International Group): 191.8 million lei
• Lukoil Moldova (a unit of Russia’s Lukoil): 180.2 million lei

Source: See News