LOCAL PUBLIC TRANSPORT COMPANIES-FUEL SUPPLIERS
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
THE COMPETITION AUTHORITY HAS IMPOSED FINES OF EURO 542,000 FOR HAVING CREATED A CARTEL FOR THE SUPPLY OF DIESEL FUEL IN MILAN AND TURIN
At its meeting on 20 February 2003, the Competition Authority decided that 21 companies distributing "extra-network" vehicle diesel fuel had concluded agreements in violation of Section 2 of the Competition Act (Law 287/90) for the supply of diesel vehicle fuel to the public transport services in Milan and Turin. The investigations had shown that a number of resolutions and actions taken by the petroleum product suppliers' trade association, ASSOPETROLI and its provincial representative in Milan, had substantially weakened competition on the "extra-network" market, particularly when tendering. In view of the seriousness and the duration of this conduct, the Authority imposed fines totalling euro 542,144.
The investigation had begun on 30 May 2001, examining the results of the tenders called between 1996 and 2000 by the public transport companies, ATM in Milan and Turin, and ANM in Naples, which had brought to light numerous substantial anomalies.
Firstly, the investigation revealed the existence of a number of agreements in violation of Section 2 of the Competition Act, which had conditioned conduct by the tendering companies to supply vehicle diesel fuel to the Milan and Turin transport authorities. Both the purpose and the result of this conduct had been to prevent any competition between the tendering companies.
As far as the Milan tenders were concerned, the following companies were involved in these unlawful practices: Agip Petroli, Atriplex, Tamoil Petroli, Beta Import, Cam Petroli, Eredi Campidonico, Eliolub, Elyo Italia, Europetrol, Gorla, Iplom, Maxcom Petroli, Ambrogio Moro, Nelsa, Olicar, Opam Oils, Termoil, Total Fina Elf Italia and Q8 Quaser. Investigations revealed that these companies had coordinated their actions to ensure that the supplies of vehicle diesel fuel to the transport companies concerned would be shared between them, taking turns to participate in the monthly tenders, and by establishing temporary joint ventures for the annual tenders, to be able to guarantee all those taking part a share in the overall fuel supplies. Substantial evidence emerged that this coordination was clearly the result of a strategy pursued since 1998 by some of the companies.
As far as the Turin tenders were concerned, this anti-competitive behaviour had been possible under an agreement to create a temporary joint venture, which subsequently became a consortium, to which all the main tenderers belonged, removing any possibility for them to compete against each other. The corporate structure that they had created remained virtually unchanged from one year to the next, and comprised five companies were controlled by, or related to the oil companies, Arcotrading, Atriplex, Elyo Italia, Eredi Campidonico and Sicla, which also had very large storage depots in the area of Piedmont. The agreement between these parties, which some of them had concluded as long ago as 1993, and which had continued until 1999, enabled the consortium to win all the competitive tenders for supplying the Turin public transport company ATM, with a rigid share-out between the member companies of the consortium in proportion to their shares.
As far as the outcome of the Naples ANM tenders between 1996 and 2000 were concerned, even though the companies had behaved anomalously in many respects, the evidence that emerged could not be interpreted unambiguously by the Authority, which did not therefore find their conduct to be in violation of Section 2 of the Competition Act.
The level of competition that exists in the "non-network" sector, and particularly on the vehicle diesel fuel tender markets had been substantially influenced by the conduct of ASSOPETROLI through a number of its resolutions and actions performed by their temporary joint ventures. The investigation provided evidence that the association representing the petroleum product sellers had acted anti-competitively, with conduct designed to condition the preparation of offers for the diesel vehicle fuel competitive tenders.
Having established that these agreements had been designed to, and had had the effect of preventing competition to a substantial degree, the Authority ordered the companies concerned to immediately cease this conduct and imposed the following penalties on each of the companies.
PENALTIES FOR THE MILAN TENDERS
| Company | Penalities (euro) |
| Agip Petroli S.p.A. | 33,316 |
| Atriplex S.r.l. | 74,657 |
| Beta Import S.p.A. | 9,760 |
| Cam Petroli S.r.l. | 17,088 |
| Eredi Campidonico S.p.A. | 2,929 |
| Eliolub di Silvano Banchelli S.a.s. | 3,335 |
| Elyo Italia S.r.l. | 45,873 |
| Europetrol S.p.A. | 4,079 |
| Gorla S.p.A. | 44,032 |
| Iplom S.p.A. | 0 |
| Maxcom Petroli S.r.l. | 19,210 |
| Ambrogio Moro S.p.A. | 23,178 |
| Nelsa S.r.l. | 24,841 |
| Olicar S.p.A. | 19,127 |
| Opam Oils S.p.A. | 2,826 |
| Tamoil Petroli S.p.A. | 49,483 |
| Termoil S.a.s. di Banchelli Lorenzo & C. | 15,157 |
| Total Fina Elf Italia S.p.A. | 27,987 |
| Q8 Quaser S.r.l. | 30,322 |
PENALTIES FOR THE TURIN TENDERS
| Companies | Penalties (euro) |
| Arcoservizi S.p.A. | 9,946 |
| Atriplex S.r.l. | 10,095 |
| Elyo Italia S.r.l. | 28,170 |
| Eredi Campidonico S.p.A. | 28,425 |
| Sicla S.p.A. | 7,308 |
As for as the fuel suppliers' associations that had instituted the agreement, lastly, the Authority imposed a fine of euro 10,000 on ASSOPETROLI and a fine of euro 1,000 on the Milan Sindicato Provinciale Assopetroli.
Rome, 6 March 2003.