Little story about fuel price fixing in Ballarat!

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Stan


http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11717107%5E1702,00.html

 

No you don't!


Petrol groups guilty of price fixing
By Jamie Duncan
December 17, 2004

THE Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has won a
landmark case against petrol companies that fixed fuel prices in the
Victorian city of Ballarat.

Federal Court Justice Ron Merkel found four companies – Triton 2001 Pty
Ltd, Apco Service Stations Pty Ltd, Brumar Pty Ltd and Cavallo Volante
Pty Ltd, formerly Balgee Oil Pty Ltd – entered price fixing arrangements
up to 69 times between June 1999 and December 2000.

The four companies and three senior managers, Triton Ballarat area
manager Anthony Brian Rosenow, Apco Service Stations director Peter
Joseph Anderson and Brumar retail area manager Garry Victor Dalton, were
the subject of today's proceedings.

The parties contested the ACCC's case but Justice Merkel found managers
from the companies used phone conversations to orchestrate price rises,
in contravention of the Trade Practices Act.

"The contraventions, which involve serious and on-going breaches of
important provisions of the (Trade Practices) Act, resulted in the price
of petrol in Ballarat being the subject of a cartel type of arrangement
or understanding over a substantial period of time," Justice Merkel said
in his judgment.






"It was an arrangement or understanding that led to the public paying
higher retail prices for petrol than they would have paid if the prices
had been determined by market forces, rather than by a collusive
arrangement between competitors."

The parties will return to the Federal Court for a penalty hearing on
March 7 next year.

Nine other respondents, including Leahy Petroleum Pty Ltd, Leahy Retail
Pty Ltd, Chisholm Pty Ltd, Justco Pty Ltd and five men, admitted the
ACCC's case against them.

They are subject to separate penalty hearings before Justice Goldberg.
Judgment has been reserved.

Combined, the companies involved in price fixing ran BP, Shell,
Ampol/Caltex, Swift, Apco and Mobil outlets in the Ballarat area.

Ballarat's Ampol Road Pantry petrol station was not included in the action.

 

Thats odd, when i often pass the outskirts of Ballarat [The Shell and BP
next to each other] those 2 and Beufort often have cheaper fuel than Melb.
and also cheapest for the next 700km...

CDIHL

 

Ballarat prices seem to work on a slower cycle than Melbourne. When
the prices go up in Melbourne the prices will be cheaper in Ballarat
for a while. When the prices fall in Melbourne Ballarat will be more
expensive. Currently I think a few places have just dropped under $1 a
litre again - I think Melbourne has been cheaper recently.

I think that the pricing in Ballarat has changed since the
investigation started.

I remember one interview on Melbourne radio with one of the
distributors who had been accused of telling the service stations what
price to sell at. He said "I didn't tell them what price to sell
petrol at - I just told them if they didn't put the price up I
wouldn't supply them any more." LOL

 

Duh.....

 

And why do out-of-the-way, oops-sorry-wrong-turn Invergordon and Katamatite
have petrol at 2-3 cents a litre above Melbourne prices, when every major
town around them can be up to 10-12 cents dearer?
One of the big mysteries of life.
- sanbar

 

Katamatite is that aboriginal for "Tight Pussy"
Lushy

 

Close. Wrong gender.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=catamite

JL

 

Ah yes. Brings to mind a conversation with a word-wanker
way way way back when. Reckoned one of his favourite
name-calling insults was 'belligerent catamite'.

p'raps ya had to be there.

G