Hong Kong transport workers and lawmaker cite Competition Ordinance in complaint that oil companies are fixing prices
Frankie Yick Chi-ming argues alongside a transport workers’ advocacy group that the five firms were too slow to cut petrol prices as international rates fell
On the first day of the Competition Ordinance’s full implementation, a transport workers’ advocacy group lodged a formal complaint with the Competition Commission against alleged price-fixing by local oil companies.
Land Transportation Alliance was joined by transport sector lawmaker Frankie Yick Chi-ming who said this morning that oil companies were “too slow to cut petrol prices” as international crude oil prices continued to plummet.
“Oil companies have been quick to raise petrol prices but slow to cut them,” said Yick.
READ MORE: New Competition Ordinance seeks to impose a level playing field for smaller Hong Kong firms
He said fuel prices had been adjusted almost simultaneously and set at similar levels among five oil firms in the city, raising concern that they had formed an oil cartel.
“The transport industry would like to urge the commission to investigate their pricing strategies now that the Competition Ordinance has come into effect,” Yick told the Post.
According to the ordinance, an agreement on a formula to calculate price or elements of price such as discounts and rebates could contravene the law.
