AMCU fined the Privat service station network for 4.7 billion

A huge fine was imposed after many years of legal confrontation between the AMCU and the participants in the collusion in the Ukrainian fuel market.

The Antitrust Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) imposed a fine on the operators of the service station network, which are part of the Privat Group, for concerted anti-competitive actions in the setting of prices of petroleum products. The amount of the fine was 4.7 billion UAH, reports the press service of the AMCU.

So, on Tuesday, March 30, a fine was imposed, in particular, on PTF Avias LLC, Avias Trading House LLC, Prom Garant Plus LLC, Alliance Evolution LLC, Ukrtatnafta PJSC and 169 service station operators (in particular, Ukrnafta PJSC ).

“During the investigation, it was established that in the retail trade of light petroleum products in Ukraine there is a cashless payment system with scratch cards and Avias fuel cards. About 1,625 gas stations are involved in this project. These gas stations operate under different brand names in all regions of Ukraine. In general, their number is almost 25% of the service stations in the country. The Committee determined that the Avias project is organized, coordinated and operated with the objective of harmonizing the price and commercial behavior of the participants. “Says the message.

The AMCU added that the entire network sold Keropur® ENERGY brand gasoline and diesel fuel (this is the exclusive brand of PJSC Ukrtatnafta). In addition, the network immediately set the same prices, regardless of the brand of the gas station and the region.

In addition, we managed to reach the “Center”, which included several business entities located at the same address in the city of Dnipro. In it, the actions of the network were planned and coordinated in detail.

Likewise, the AMCU highlighted, a significant number of identical contracts were found for the sale of petroleum products and property, leasing of service stations, material assistance; It was found that the people who held the positions of director, founder, signer, accountant, manager, etc., often changed and worked simultaneously in several companies participating in the project.

It was possible to establish that the composition of the legal entities – participants in the project was constantly changing (without changing the personal composition). This went through the same liquidators.

The AMCU found that gas station operators, including PJSC Ukrnafta, were purchasing light oil products from PJSC Ukrtatnafta at higher prices than similar imported fuel.

“Such coordinated behavior by Avias project participants violates competition between service station operators in the market,” the AMCU emphasized.

AMCU chief Olga Pischanskaya said colossal work had been carried out under the conditions of “many years of legal confrontation between the AMCU and the participants in the collusion in the Ukrainian fuel market.”

“Despite the difficult circumstances and the enormous resistance of the accused, we completed the investigation and made a decision,” Pischanskaya emphasized.

Earlier it was reported that the AMCU fined Tedis Ukraine 274 million UAH. The reason for this decision was the failure of the company to comply with the committee’s decision on the protection of economic competition.

It was also reported that the Rada demanded that the AMCU investigate the situation in the power market: why, at the height of the heating season, 12 TPP power units were turned off for emergency repairs at once.

News of Correspondent.net on Telegram. Subscribe to our channel https://t.me/korrespondentnet