On May 16, the National Federation of Fuel and Energy Distributors (Fendipetróleo), chaired by Juan Carlos Vélez Uribe, filed with the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce a complaint once morest Terpel for allegedly setting prices artificially low, to affect other service stations that cannot maintain these rates.
(Fitch Ratings reaffirmed Terpel’s AAA ratings).
“As argued in the content of the complaint, an analysis was carried out in which it was shown that, in the city of Bogotá, the service stations owned by the aforementioned wholesale company might be setting artificially low sales prices to the public, giving up partially or totally to its retail marketing margin, affecting the service stations that are within its same area of influence”, Fendipetróleo said in a statement.
#OfficialCommunication Fendipetróleo denounced the Terpel Organization before the Superindustry for conduct contrary to the free competition regime. EDS would be selling fuel with marketing margins below their costs.⛽️????????@sicsuper pic.twitter.com/c4Z0rzRww0
– National Fendipetroleum (@Fendipetroleo) May 31, 2022
(Primax and Terpel stations will only sell Ecopetrol fuels).
To support the complaint, it provided as evidence the case of two Terpel service stations (Matatigres and Ganadero) that on May 23 had a retail price of regular motor gasoline worth $8,430 and $8,460 respectively, while the reference price for Bogotá was $9,372.
Fendipetróleo explained that under this practice those Terpel stations would be renouncing more than 95% of the retail marketing margin recognized by the Government to affect their competitors.
(The four firms that lead the fuel business in Colombia).
In addition to the complaint before the SIC, an entity that will investigate whether there were violations of the free competition regime, Fendipetróleo requested the intervention of the Government through the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Commission for the Regulation of Energy and Gas (CREG) in order to avoid the cartelization of fuel prices.
BRIEFCASE
