Petrol Stations price fixing?

Raiser

I have heard on a number of occasions over the years that Limerick Petrol Station Owners work in a coordinated way to set fuel prices to their own agenda - ie. against normal market forces and independent of the usual variations caused by Consumer preference etc.

One source hinted that a certain Petrol Station Owner in the Dooradoyle area was instrumental in setting this up and organising it.

- I'm no Expert but if there was any truth in this, wouldn't it be in violation of competition Law and thus, in a manner, a type of Cartel behaviour?

Kess73

Nothing new in that I'm afraid.

The "gentleman" in question has long been suspected of being one of the main movers behind keeping the prices artificially high in this area, along with the business partner with whom he shared some stations with.

But actually proving it is nigh on impossible though.

If proven, then there would be repercussions legally.


At present that gentleman does his business under a franchise banner, but through that affiliation he has regular contact with managers of COCO ( company owned company operated) sites, and also with CODO (Company Owned Dealer Operated) sites, and of course with some of the independent sites operating under a franchise banner.

Publicly the major companies who allow others to operate under their banner frown upon such behaviour and publicly condemn it, but they do nothing to discourage the practise of price matching at a higher price as long as it cannot be linked to them. It suits them to have a small number of Independents keeping a small cartel going, as the company owned sites will then only have to match the higher prices or maybe go a cent below them to seem competitive.

That way there are higher margins all round.

It is not a practise unique to Limerick city and suburbs though, far from it. It just stands out here because of how small Limerick is.

Raiser

Kess73 wrote: »

The "gentleman" in question has long been suspected of being one of the main movers behind keeping the prices artificially high in this area, along with the business partner with whom he shared some stations with.

But actually proving it is nigh on impossible though.

Thanks for that.

What we need is an organised Boycott of the Cartel itself; All that People would need to do would be to bypass those involved and be prepared to travel 5-10 mins further to support price-competitive Petrol Stations.

- The first issue would be to identify a Business that is interested in gaining a lot of new business on a promise of selling competitively/fairly priced fuel to Motorists who are sick of artificially inflated prices.

The loss in custom should make itself felt quite quickly as the Cartel Owners notice a sharp drop-off in sales across the board for their Groceries, Deli-Counter etc. - If enough People supported this idea then they would have no choice but to reduce their crooked prices.....

Kess73

Raiser wrote: »

Thanks for that.

What we need is an organised Boycott of the Cartel itself; All that People would need to do would be to bypass those involved and be prepared to travel 5-10 mins further to support price-competitive Petrol Stations.

- The first issue would be to identify a Business that is interested in gaining a lot of new business on a promise of selling competitively/fairly priced fuel to Motorists who are sick of artificially inflated prices.

The loss in custom should make itself felt quite quickly as the Cartel Owners notice a sharp drop-off in sales across the board for their Groceries, Deli-Counter etc. - If enough People supported this idea then they would have no choice but to reduce their crooked prices.....

To be honest people should already have the cop on to avoid the stations that are dearer on a constant basis. I live in the Dooradoyle area and don't use any of the stations there for anything. I make a point of using the Texaco in Roxborough, as they generally have cheaper fuel prices that any of the Dooradoyle station, and will pick up any impulse buys in the Roxborough shop.

It is very simple really, why go and buy anything else in a shop when you think they are ripping you off for fuel prices? In a place as small as Limerick it is worth the short drive to one of the cheaper stations to get your petrol/diesel plus your ciggies/sweets/paper.

Generally there is a cheaper station within reach of anyone in Limerick.

Off the top of my head the cheapest right now in the city and suburbs are

Texaco in Roxborough
Emo on Clare Street
Esso beside Singland motors on the Dublin Road
Applegreen in Corbally.

If people made a point of finding the cheaper stations and rewarding them with business for as long as they are competitive, then it would force the expensive ones to react to the change in consumer spending. It would not work with a week or two of avoiding the expensive stations, it would take a prolonged period of less income for them to respond by bringing prices down.


I actually think that one of the local papers should run a weekly price section on local stations. They could list the cheapest and most expensive stations for fuel each week, and also highlight the ones with good instore prices on groceries/papers etc.

I know that quite a few people from the local and national papers use Boards for info and news, so to whichever one of you is reading this, think about the idea for a regular article.

Raiser

Kess73 wrote: »

Texaco in Roxborough
Emo on Clare Street
Esso beside Singland motors on the Dublin Road
Applegreen in Corbally.

Thanks for listing those - The Petrol Station in the horrific steel-reinforced concrete, wasteland, neo-tenement Jungle that is New Clarina is usually cheaper than most as well......

Kess73

Raiser wrote: »

Thanks for listing those - The Petrol Station in the horrific steel-reinforced concrete, wasteland, neo-tenement Jungle that is New Clarina is usually cheaper than most as well......

Yeah I know that one is normally cheaper than most of the other stations, but the ones I listed are always as cheap as it, and all are closer to the city and have a shop, so they made more sense for me to list.


Cheapest in the county are all in the Newcastle West/ Croagh area.