Ex-minister Urges Bulgarian Govt to Take Trust-buster to SAC over Fuel Cartel Ruling
The Bulgarian government should, if that legal option is still available, take the Commission for the Protection of Competition to the Supreme Administrative Court over its recent ruling on the existence of a price-fixing cartel in the country's fuel sector, former economy minister Traicho Traikov said.
In March, the Commission said Lukoil Bulgaria, Rompetrol Bulgaria, Naftex Petrol ad OMV Bulgaria had formed a pricing cartel on the local wholesale car petrol and diesel fuel segment but in a ruling issued last month, the regulator back-tracked, saying it had found no irregularities.
Back in March as well as right now, prices are higher than they should be, news portal Dnevnik (www.dnevnik.bg) quoted Traikov as saying on Sunday.
The former minister noted that the state has the capacity to act as a market player when prices spike, using as leverage its contingency stockpiles and state reserves.