The Competition Council closes its two-year long investigation into the activities of fuel retailers

The Competition Council has closed its two-year long investigation into the activities of SIA Neste Latvija, SIA Latvija Statoil and SIA LUKoil Baltija R. The case was opened following a fuel retail market inquiry commenced by the Competition Council in February 2010 and aimed to study the reasons of parallel pricing behaviour of fuel retailers. The authority carried out dawn raids at the premises of undertakings, as well as performed econometric modelling of costs, pricing principles and price fluctuations during the period of investigation. As a result of investigation the authority concluded that the fuel retailers have not engaged in any illegal activities and their pricing practices are affected only by market supply and demand factors.

COBALT advised SIA Neste Latvija during the investigation, as well as represented SIA Neste Latvija before the Competition Council.