Pecuniary penalties totalling $470,000 were ordered by the Federal Court yesterday for price-fixing conduct in the Woodridge area of Brisbane.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission instituted proceedings against the Matilda Woodridge and BP Logan City service stations (this is a BP branded site only, it is not operated by BP), located south of Brisbane, in May this year.
On June 15 the Federal Court declared on the basis of facts jointly submitted by the parties, that the suppliers of petrol at the two petrol stations made a number of agreements to fix retail petrol prices, and one agreement to fix LPG prices, between 2002 and 2004 in breach of section 45 of the Trade Practices Act 1974.
Yesterday, Justice Kiefel ordered the owners and operators of the Matilda Woodridge service station on Kingston Road, to pay pecuniary penalties in the sum of:
- $350,000 against O'Keeffe Nominees Pty Ltd (OKN)
- $70,000 against Meribell Pty Ltd
- $50,000 against the site's manager, Mr Terence O'Keeffe.
In ordering the penalties Justice Kiefel said "regard is necessary to the need to ensure no repetition of such conduct by these respondents and to deter others from contemplating it".
In the reasons for judgment, Justice Kiefel said "the conduct was deliberate and covert. It extended over two substantial periods of time".
While the directors of OKN and Meribell were neither aware of nor involved in the contravening conduct they had ceded control of pricing at the site to Mr O'Keeffe and taken no steps to ensure or encourage his compliance with the Act.
ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said "the ACCC regards all price-fixing as serious conduct, regardless of the number of suppliers involved".
"Even though OKN and Gullyside did not have a large share of the market, they played an important part in setting lower prices and influencing competition in that way. Petrol is a consumer staple and it is crucial that markets work competitively to ensure consumers are getting the best price possible", Mr Samuel said.
In addition to the penalties, in June the Federal Court ordered injunctions against the Matilda Woodridge respondents (O'Keeffe Nominees Pty Ltd, Meribell Pty Ltd and Mr O'Keeffe) and the BP Logan City respondents (Mr Parmjit Singh and Gullyside Pty Ltd).
The injunctions restrain OKN and Gullyside from entering into and giving effect to any agreement that has the purpose or effect of fixing or controlling the price of ULP, LRP and/or PULP, for a period of four years. The injunctions also restrain Meribell and Gullyside from the same conduct in relation to LPG, for four years, and restrain Mr O'Keeffe and Mr Singh from being involved in agreements of that nature.
Justice Kiefel also ordered that the Matilda Woodridge respondents pay the ACCC's costs, agreed at $80,000.