Fuel Cartel

I met an acquitance of mine yesterday, he's just gone into business and has taken over a small filling station quite near where I live. He's been trading for a couple of months now and has been offering fuel at the lowest prices in town, a good 7 or 8 cents less per litre than the other stations. Since dropping his prices he's had visits from a number of the other operators asking him why is prices are so low and effectively telling him what prices to sell petrol and diesel at. The local fuel distributors have now stopped supplying him fuel and he has to source it from another distributor, over 30 miles away! He has confirmed what I've long believed- there is effectively little or no competition in the motor fuel market, bar the odd independent who dares to stick his head above the parapet. Of course there's no case to pursue here with the competition authority, nothing is written down, there are no "official" meetings where suppliers set prices and agree on pricing structures, but I now know this does happen in a more informal, insidious way! My insider contact tells me if he could sell it any cheaper he would, just to p*** them off! How's that for Rip Off Ireland? I hope he gets the support from consumers that he deserves.

Your friend should report the matter to The Competition Authority immediatley.

Findings of TCA re [font=Verdana, Arial][font=Verdana, Arial][font=Verdana, Arial][font=Verdana, Arial][font=Verdana, Arial][font=Verdana, Arial][font=Verdana, Arial][font=Verdana, Arial][font=Verdana, Arial][font=Verdana, Arial][url="http://www.tca.ie/press/94.pdf"][font=Verdana, Arial] [url="http://www.tca.ie/press/93.pdf"]The Competition Authority uncovers agreement by Statoil to keep petrol prices artificially high(8th December, 2003) [/font][/url] [/font][/font][/font][/font][/font][/font][/font][/font][/font][/font][/url] (pdf file) here.

I assume he has CCTV in his station. If so, he can prove the visits by the local competiton and hopefully may have some audio also.

When Statoil purchased BP & Jet they had a price promise! Now they are the market leader, they have changed direction and seem to be dictating the local market price.

I worked in Tallaght a few years back and Statoil fuel prices were the best in Dublin. Since Statoil purchased the Primo garages prices have risen and are now above average.

My wife is from Palmerstown, again another cheap Statoil garage for fuel in the past, as witnessed by the number of taxi drivers in the forecourts. In recent months, prices have rocketed.

Bottom line - competition is local issue. All garages watch each other and price accordingly. Is a total cartel!

Isn't it the same story with natural gas , LPG and electricity for the private consumer ? Isn't that situation providing jobs for our politicans ? Why do we need a regulatory body when a states attorney with the aid of good criminal investigators ( the police ) could do the job i.e. protecting us against criminals ?

Just to give you an update on my acquintance! Met him this morning, business is good, his fuel is still 3-4 cent cheaper (per litre) and in the last few weeks most of the other operators have brought their prices down by 4-5 cents per litre! However he intends to drop prices even further tomorrow and he's expecting queues for the pumps- he hopes the competitors are hopping!! Based on this it appears that fuel has been held at an artificial high in the past, by up to 6-9 cent per litre. Best of luck to him I say!

I live in galway and we have one of the highest prices in Ireland for fuel.There is a cartel without a doubt, the prices rise and drop together, no one is ever outside the range of one or two cent per ltr.

On home heating oil it does seem a wee bit different, there can be up to 10 cent a litre difference with the largest (Statoil and Shell ) the most expensive. Shell actually are reluctant to give a price for anthing less than 500ltrs.

But why does it surprise us that we are being screwed yet again.

Its up to us to price around and ignore the expensive ones.

Carpenter, any chance of hinting at the name or even location of said business so more of us could support his campaign?
Leo

Hi Carpenter,

In the light of the allegations made in your first post I think it would be unwise to name the business or location here as it may be libellous.

Did you or your friend report the matter to the Competitions Authority?

ajapale

Hi Ajapale
I had no intention of naming the business concerned, although libel would hardly come into play as I didn't name the businesses/ individuals associated with the "fuel cartel". Nothing was reported to the Competitions Authority- the business in question is doing well and is getting local support and that is probably a greater vindication for this new business.

Carpenter

Not near Galway is it ????