"Fraudulent rise in fuel prices through speculative manoeuvres“. This is the new, heavy accusation against some oil companies operating in Italy. There Finance Police of Varese carried out the investigation and the proceedings of the investigation were transmitted for competence to Milan and Rome. The companies involved are Shell, Tamoil, Eni, Esso, Total Erg, Q8 and Api.
A note from the Fiamme Gialle explains that the investigation, which began a year ago after a complaint by Codacons, examined the documentation acquired from the oil companies relating to the origin and trend of fuel prices and the reasons for the increases and decreasing between January 2011 and March 2012.
“The financiers also made a comparison with the prices charged in other European Union countries in the same period – reads the press release -, noting average prices in Italy higher than the average of EU prices, mostly due to the inadequacy of the distribution network”.
The investigations also aimed to verify whether the oil companies "had put in place a particular form of transfer pricing, implemented through intra-community operations of sale and repurchase of oil products, having their own associated companies as counterparty, so as to allow them to get a form of tax savings which would lead to a parallel increase in pump prices in Italy".
At the end of the investigations, as stated in the note, the investigating judge of the Court of Varese acknowledged "the existence of a fraudulent rise in fuel prices through speculative maneuvers committed by the top management bodies of the oil companies".
