Four majors in France fined for price collusion

By an OGJ correspondent

PARIS, Apr. 3 -- The four international oil majors operating in France—TotalFinaElf France, Société des Pétroles Shell, Esso SAF, and BP France—have been fined 27 million euros by the Competition Authority, of which TotalFinaElf must pay 12 million euros and the other three companies 5 million euros each, for "collusion in setting motor fuel prices" in highway service stations during January 1999-June 2000.

All four groups have strongly denied any price collusion, and all are disputing CA's ruling. Each company, queried by OGJ, said that it would most likely appeal the ruling. Each company also has indicated that the accusation "of frequent and repeated information exchanges among service station managers on highways" has nothing to do with "collusion" but is normal practice used in a competitive market to collect information on prices displayed at different service stations.