The Competition Council will create a comparison site for fuel prices, a tool similar to the one successfully launched for food products, a year ago, announced the institution.
The government approved the Memorandum regarding the setting up of a fuel price monitoring system, a platform that will lead to market transparency for consumers so that they can choose the best price-quality fuel ratio. Increasing transparency for consumers could increase the level of competition in the automotive fuel retail market, with beneficial effects upon fuel prices, but also upon their quality, services offered at fuel stations, etc.
“For the completion of this application, a database containing a list of all companies selling fuels, the geographic location of the gas stations, the types of fuels (gasoline and diesel) marketed in each gas station, the pump prices are to be created for this application. As a result, we intend to amend the competition law accordingly, so as to create the legal framework regarding the basis of requesting data and information from the active companies on the market, which will also allow active monitoring of the prices of oil companies”, said Bogdan Chiriţoiu, president of the Competition Council.
Following the example of the German Competition Authority, the Competition Council will give access to the database, under certain conditions, to other similar application developers, so that the consumers will have more platforms that offer different facilities. Earlier this year, the Competition Council launched a sectoral investigation into the automotive fuel market, given the rigidity observed on the retail prices of fuel in Romania. This phenomenon was found from the comparative evolution of prices in Romania and the average of prices at European level, but also in the way the domestic prices evolved in relation to changes in international quotations for petroleum products, specified the institution.
During this investigation, a wide range of data and information from companies operating on this market, including the evolution of retail fuel prices, are analyzed. As a result, companies must provide the Authority with data and information upon the factors affecting the retail price level for automotive fuels (petrol and diesel) marketed in Romania, but also regarding other issues, such as the minimum stocks.
The Competition Authority has instituted and sanctioned two cartel arrangements regarding the fuel market (6 oil companies have been fined with over 200 million euros, the Competition Council winning trials against them, 3 companies in the wholesale fuel market were fined approximately 3,7 million euros).
Also, the Competition Council has developed a set of recommendations for stimulating competition in the fuel market, the main beneficiaries being the final consumers. In this context, one of the proposals of the Competition Council was the elimination of the barriers upon the entry on the fuel market, respectively the simplification of the procedures for setting up the distribution stations. This would increase the competitive pressure upon the active companies on this market.