Exceptional agreements and the competition regime:
On March 20, the Australian competition and consumer authority authorized the country's largest gasoline distributors to enter into an agreement to share confidential information. Days earlier, the authority announced an investigation against Ampol, BP, Mobil Oil, and Viva Energy, who represent over 85% of the country's gasoline market, for alleged cartelization. However, this decision allows these companies and the Australian Institute of Petroleum to exchange information to prevent and alleviate situations of scarcity due to the situation in the Middle East.
TL;DR
- Australia's competition authority authorized major gasoline distributors to share confidential information to prevent fuel shortages.
- This decision comes despite an ongoing investigation into alleged cartelization among these companies.
- The move is framed as an exceptional measure due to the situation in the Middle East.
- Colombian competition law also allows for exceptionally approved anti-competitive agreements under strict conditions for basic economic sectors.
- Recent Colombian examples include agreements for intervened EPS to jointly negotiate drug prices and for rice producers to set a minimum purchase price.
- These exceptional agreements, though historically rare, are presented as useful tools for managing situational crises.