In a case initiated in early September, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has called representatives of seven companies from the Nadezhda group, three firms from the WOG group and two legal entities from the OKKO group as defendants on signs of anti-competitive concerted actions on the LPG market.
“As information from LPG market players is still arriving and its analysis continues, the list of defendants may be expanded further,” the Antimonopoly Committee said on Wednesday, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
The case of violations in the LPG market was first started when a substantial rise in price of this kind of fuel was observed in August 2017. The antimonopoly regulator has requested information regarding the case from 72 different organizations and conducted 10 unscheduled on-site inspections.
“The simultaneous rise in retail prices of light fuel in September 2017 could be an evidence of anticompetitive coordinated actions of market players,” the agency’s press-service remarked.
Since early September 2017, average retail prices of A-95 gasoline increased by more than 5%, with a similar situation in the diesel fuel market. “Retail prices of A-95 at stations operating under brands WOG, OKKO and Socar increased by UAH 1.5 per liter of fuel within two weeks in September and reached UAH 27.99 per liter on 26 September 2017. This was the highest price on the market," the agency claimed.
