OREANDA-NEWS. July 06, 2012. The second joint meeting of the Working Group on studying pricing on the markets of oil and oil products and methods of market performance took place in Vienna. The meeting was organized by Austria’s Federal Competition Authority, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia. 

The welcoming address was given by Deputy General Director of Austria’s Federal Competition Authority, Peter Matousek, and Extraordinary and Authorized Ambassador of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Austria, Sergey Nechaev.

The meeting was moderated by Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Anatoly Golomolzin, and Deputy General Director of Austria’s Federal Competition Authority, Peter Matousek.

The meeting focused on methodologies for defining product and geographic boundaries of wholesale and retail markets of oil and oil products.

Anatoly Golomolzin made a presentation on “Methodologies for Defining Product and Geographic Boundaries of Wholesale and Retail Markets of Oil and Oil Products”. He shared experience of the Russian Federation for analyzing the state of competition on the markets of oil products, paying special attention to the practice of establishing collective dominance of participants of oil products market, the methodologies for defining product and geographic boundaries of wholesale market of oil products in the Russian Federation, and discussed the outcome of judicial proceedings as well as specifics of pricing on the market of oil products and measures undertaken by FAS Russia.

A representative of German Federal Competition Authority, Sandro Gleave, discussed the methodology for defining geographic boundaries of retail gasoline market in Germany and shared German experience of investigating retail markets of oil products.

The chief economist of Austria’s Federal Competition Authority, Rayner Kaltenbrunner, reported about studies of oil products markets being conducted by Austria, including studies of wholesale and retail markets, relationships between companies operating on these markets, specifics of transportation and pricing on these markets.

Presentations were also made by representatives of Hungary and Bulgaria.

Representatives of the competition authorities of Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic also took part in the meeting of the Working Group.

As pointed out by the speakers, the state of competition on wholesale and retail markets is affected by the market structure. In particular, presentations emphasized the problems of collective dominance of the main market participants, strengthening dominant position through chains of vertical integration. The speakers also pointed out specifics of classifying dominant position on wholesale and retail markets. Interactions between global and national markets, as well as market entry barriers, are of considerable significance.

The Working Group also discussed organizational issues of its future activities. In particular, the Working Group approved timing and locations of forthcoming meetings. The third meeting of the Working Group will be organized by FAS Russia in September 2012 in Kazan as part of an International “Competition Day”. The meeting will focus on the existing approaches to monitoring and analyzing wholesale and retail markets of oil and oil products.

The Working Group is also considering organizing special meetings to discuss pricing on oil and oil products on national markets, including impact of global prices upon pricing on national markets, exchanging experience and approaches to enforcing the antimonopoly law on the markets of oil and oil products, procedures for exchanging non-confidential information between members of the Working Group. In particular, it is planned to form an archive of the Working Group, which will be replenished by information on performance of oil and oil products markets of the countries participating in the Working Group: information about cases on violating the antimonopoly law on the markets of oil and oil products, analytical materials about performance of wholesale and retail markets of oil and oil products, and other information.

Reference:
The Working Group on studying pricing on the markets of oil and oil products and methods of market performance was formed upon an initiative of FAS Russia and Austria’s Federal Competition Authority in October 2011. The first meeting of the Working Group took place on 25th January 2012 in Moscow at the III International Forum “Exchange and Off-Exchange Markets of Oil and Oil Products in the Russian Federation”. The Working Group comprises 13 countries including Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Portugal, Russia, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine.