Bulgaria's anti-monopoly watchdog raids fuel retailers offices
06/04/2016 12:00
SOFIA, April 6 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's anti-monopoly watchdog
raided the offices of two fuel retailers as part of an
investigation into the country's only oil refinery and seven
fuel retailers for possible cartel agreements to fix prices of
petrol and diesel fuels.
"The Commission for Protection of Competition raided several
offices of Lukoil LKOH.MM and Rompetrol RORRC.BX in the
capital Sofia," the commission's spokesman said on Wednesday.
"Our goal is to try to collect as much evidence as possible."
Lukoil and Rompetrol were not available for immediate
comment.
In February, the watchdog started investigating the
Bulgarian units of Lukoil and Rompetrol as well as units of
Royal Dutch Shell RDSa.L , OMV OMVV.VI , Hellenic Petroleum
HEPr.AT , Nis Petrol and Bulgarian Petrol
5PET.BB . urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1644LC
It has also launched a probe into the Lukoil Neftochim
Burgas oil refinery regarding possible breaches of competition
rules related to the sale of its fuels on the local market.
The investigation followed complaints by Bulgarians over
high fuel costs despite a plunge in global oil prices and a
request by Prime Minister Boiko Borisov that the competition
authority hasten checks on the fuel sector.
The competition authority launched the full investigation
after an analysis of the European Union country's fuel sector
between 2013 and 2015. It found that the retail price policies
of the seven companies were very similar and too slow to reflect
falls in wholesale and production prices.
(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; editing by Jason Neely)
((angel.krasimirov@thomsonreuters.com; +359 888 695 510;))
Keywords: BULGARIA FUEL/PROBE