Anti-competitive agreement: six companies fined 480 million lei by Competition Council

Chisinau, July 3 /MOLDPRES/- The Competition Council announced today a fine of about 480 million lei for six oil companies after it found that they had allegedly concluded an anti-competitive agreement aimed at coordinating prices on the market. Authority's head Alexei Gherțescu made the statement today.

The fines range from 1.1 million lei to 191 million lei per company, depending on the companies' turnover.

The investigation into the case was initiated in 2021 and covered the period from March 2019 to January 2021. Thus, the Competition Council found that six companies present on the retail market of petroleum products allegedly entered into an anti-competitive agreement "to coordinate the marketing prices of petrol, diesel and liquefied gas".

Alexei Gherțescu said that the institution has found that the six companies have carried out several rounds of price changes for the marketed products with the same values. 

"The Competition Council found that such parallel behavior would have been impossible in the absence of a market understanding," Alexei Gherțescu told a press conference.

The decision to impose fines will be communicated to the companies. If they do not agree with the Council's decision, the companies concerned will have 30 days to challenge the decision in court.