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EU: Hungarian co first to admit complaint to EC over gas price-fixing

By  |  May 16, 2013

A Hungary-based producer of ethanol, relatively new to the market, has become the first company to come forward to admit that it issued complaints to the European Commission concerning possible price-fixing within Europe’s gas market. Complaints issued to the regulator sparked the largest cross-boarder investigation since the LIBOR scandal broke. Pannonia Ethanol stated that it came to the Commission over concerns of pricing agency Platts; three gas giants – Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Statoil – are suspected of forming a cartel to distort price reports issued to Platts, leading to price manipulations with major implications for oil and biofuel prices. Regulators conducted dawn raids at the companies’ offices on Wednesday and also visited office of Platts. Platts’ benchmarks set daily prices for oil deals – reports say the trading is worth $2.5 trillion every year.

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