MILAN: Italy’s antitrust regulator said Friday it has slapped Italian energy giant Eni and five other companies with fines totalling more than €936 million (US$1.1 billion) for “restricting competition” in the sale of fuel.
The authority said in a statement that Eni, Esso, Ip, Q8, Saras and Tamoil “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.