The price information on the chains' websites may have been used to coordinate pricing in violation of the Competition Act for several years, the authority determined in a decision at the beginning of December.
Risking a fine of 100 million
According to the decision, the three fuel companies, after an investigation into how pricing works, have voluntarily undertaken to cease publishing recommended fuel prices on the web by February 2, 2025, at the latest.
"The decision is accompanied by fines of 100 million kronor for each company, which can be imposed if they do not comply with their respective commitments," the Competition Authority wrote in a press release in December.
The Competition Authority has, according to its decision, been able to establish that the price communication from the chains has followed a clear pattern. Market-leading Circle K has taken the lead with the chain's centrally decided recommended prices. These have, in principle, been followed without exception by corresponding price changes at the two largest competitors, Preem and OKQ8, according to Johan Sahl, unit manager at the Competition Authority.
We have not seen that they have colluded to form a cartel. But the way each one acts leads to a coordination of prices, he says.
The type of transparency about prices that they have created has not been beneficial to consumers. It has rather been beneficial to competitors, who have been able to coordinate themselves, he adds.
"A different type of price transparency"
The chains' actions regarding centrally coordinated recommended prices may have resulted in higher fuel prices than would have been the case otherwise, according to Sahl:
Where there are several gas stations from competing chains, competition could have pushed prices down more. But when frequent price recommendations come from central level, you return to a higher normal level again each time.
A possible way to increase competition would have been if Swedish gas stations displayed their pump prices in an app directed at consumers – a system that has been established in Norway for several years.
That would be great. It's a different type of price transparency. It's a price transparency that benefits the consumer. Then it's the local prices you see, not a recommended price.
