Petrol, the Antitrust rejects the Transparency law decree: “Displaying average prices damages competition”

Petrol, the Antitrust rejects the Transparency law decree: "Displaying average prices damages competition"

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Displaying the regional average prices of petrol in distributors is useless, on the contrary, it can do damage. The Antitrust rejects the Transparency law decree on fuels, launched by the government on 10 January. The rejection comes during a hearing before the Production Activities Commission of the Chamber.

Robert Rustichelli, president of the Competition and Market Authority (Agcm), explained that his body “believes that there is no need to introduce a mechanism for calculating and disseminating average reference values, given that the benefits for consumers, faced instead with a possible risk of reduction of competitive stimuli». According to Rustichelli, “the arithmetic mean of the regional price is very little representative of the effective competitive context in which a fuel distribution plant operates”, since “a fuel distribution plant is actually in competition only with plants located a few kilometers of distance”.

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“There double billing foreseen – added Rustichelli – could even lead some consumers into confusion». But the real problem is another: «Dissemination among merchants of a regional average price runs the risk of reducing price variability, as it could be used by companies to automatically converge on a focal price». And many greetings to the competition with discounts.

The Authority, Rustichelli concluded, «has decided to start a cognitive investigation on the competitive dynamics of the automotive fuel supply chain, in order to analyze the price trend and some specific phases of the oil supply chain». This investigation will take “two or three months”. The decree was defended by consumer associations.

For the Codacons «fuel price speculation is evident when the prices of oil and Platts (the price of petrol and diesel when leaving the refinery, ed) go down and the price of petrol and diesel, unjustifiably, goes up at the pump». Cgil, Cisl and Uil, heard in the hearing, rejected the rule on the average price, because in their opinion it fails to “stop speculative maneuvers” and risks “unleashing a war between the poor”.

For Unem, the association of companies in the oil sector, “this rule is not only superfluous, but potentially dangerous for competition, because it could lead to a physiological increase”. Similar judgment from Assopetroliwhich represents distribution companies: the rule on billboards “is unique throughout the European Union”.

Granted the opposition of the petrol stations: «The billboards with the regional average prices of fuels are disliked by all the managers of the distributors for the obligations and the costs it entails – said Moreno Parin of theFuel Managers Association – and has a natural effect of price alignment, causing distributors who charge prices below the average to raise the prices».

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