
On Monday, Italy’s antitrust regulator said it had searched the offices of several oil companies, including Italy’s Eni and Exxon Mobil’s subsidiary ESSO Italiana, over alleged fuel price violations.
The 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 as 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.
Related: Italy: Telecom Italia, Vodafone agree mobile tower merger
A spokesperson for Eni said the company, which is cooperating with the authority, has acted correctly and “has already taken all contractual or operational measures against any improper behaviour”.
Fuel prices have taken centre stage in Italy after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s executive dropped a costly reduction in excise duties introduced by the previous government when the price of petrol exceeded 2 euros per litre.
Featured News
Public Interest Groups Push for Rehearing on FCC Net Neutrality Case
Feb 18, 2025 by
CPI
Australian Regulator Backs Virgin Australia-Qatar Airways Alliance
Feb 18, 2025 by
CPI
EU Scales Back AI Regulations to Compete with US in Global Tech Race
Feb 18, 2025 by
CPI
Democratic Lawmakers Raise Concerns Over Musk’s Task Force and Taxpayer Data Security
Feb 18, 2025 by
CPI
UK’s CMA Provisionally Approves Poultry Feed Merger
Feb 18, 2025 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – International Criminal Enforcement
Jan 23, 2025 by
CPI
The Antitrust Division’s Recent Work to Combat International Cartels
Jan 23, 2025 by
Emma Burnham & Benjamin Christenson
Information Sharing: The New Frontier of U.S. Antitrust Enforcement
Jan 23, 2025 by
Brian P. Quinn, Casey Kovarik & Michael Tubach
The Key Role of Guidelines on Exchanges of Information Among Competitors and the Divergent Transatlantic Paths
Jan 23, 2025 by
Rosa Abrantes-Metz & Albert Metz
Leniency, Whistleblowers, and Compliance
Jan 23, 2025 by
Richard Powers, Tara O’Malley & Cory Gordon