Italy hits six oil firms with USD1 billion antitrust fine

Italy's antitrust regulator said Friday it has slapped Italian energy giant Eni and five other companies with fines totalling more than EUR936 million, around USD1.1 billion, for "restricting competition" in the sale of fuel.

The authority said in a statement that Eni Spa, ExxonMobil Corp-owned Esso Italiana Srl, IP Gruppo api, Kuwait Petroleum International, known as Q8, Saras Spa and Tamoil SA "coordinated to set the value of the bio component factored into fuel prices", which tripled between 2019 and 2023.

A probe following a whistleblower's complaint revealed that "the companies implemented parallel price increases – largely coinciding – which were driven by direct or indirect information exchanges among them", the authority said.

"The cartel began on 1 January 2020 and continued until 30 June 2023," it added.