Italy's antitrust authority said on Monday the offices of several oil companies, including Italy's Eni and Exxon Mobil's ESSO Italiana unit, have been searched over alleged fuel price violations.
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he authority, which carried out the inspections with the help of Italy's tax police, said it was probing irregularities concerning prices being charged at the pump which were higher than those advertised, as well failures in advertising fuel prices.
Eni, Esso, Italia Petroli, Kuwait Petroleum Italia and Tamoil allegedly failed to adopt appropriate measures "to prevent and counteract this unlawful conduct to the detriment of consumers," the competition watchdog said in a statement.
The proceedings were initiated also considering the documentation provided in a timely manner by the Guardia di Finanza on the identified infringements regarding fuel prices by more than a thousand fuel stations (376 ENI stations, 40 ESSO stations, 383 IP stations, 175 Kuwait stations, 48 TAMOIL stations) spread throughout Italy.[break]
The Italian Competition Authority initiated the investigations as the documentation and data transmitted by the Guardia di Finanza seem to show that the oil companies failed to exercise due care in controlling their distribution networks in violation of Article 20 of the Consumer Code.
In many cases, there was a discrepancy between the advertised price and the highest price actually charged; in other cases, it has been possible to identify a failure to display the charged price or to communicate the price to the portal “Osservaprezzi Carburanti”, which consumers can use to find the fuel station that charges the lowest price.
In particular, Eni, Esso, IP, Kuwait Petroleum Italia and Tamoil appear not to have taken appropriate measures or initiatives to prevent and counteract such unlawful conducts to the detriment of consumers. ■
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