The Kosovar Competition Authority (“KCA”) imposed a EUR 4 million fine in total in early May 2020 on fourteen oil companies for collusion on retail prices of fuel in 2018.
As stated by the President of KCA, the investigation that encompassed both retail and wholesale levels of the market was launched in early 2019 following a lack of an appropriate reaction by local companies to the oil price decreases on the international market at the end of 2018. The KCA noted that, despite changes in the international market, the oil prices in Kosovo remained the same.
During the investigation, the KCA established that the oil companies tacitly coordinated to increase oil prices, which was done simultaneously by all fourteen oil companies on the retail level. By colluding in that manner, the companies recorded a significant increase in gross profits in November and December 2018 when compared to an average gross profit in the period January-October 2018.
The KCA did not prove any infringement on the wholesale market and thus companies that were active on the wholesale level of the market alone have not been fined.
