A year-long study by Italy's most popular car magazine has confirmed that there is little if any competition among oil companies when it comes to pump prices at services stations.
The report by Quattroruote (Four Wheels), to be published in its February edition, came less than a week after Italy's antitrust authority opened an official price-fixing probe against nine leading oil companies operating in Italy.
In its report, the monthly examined the prices which oil companies suggested daily to their retailers and informed the Industry Ministry of throughout all of 2006.
The result was that "between the company charging the most for a liter of petrol and the one charging the least the difference was an average of three-tenths of a euro cent. For diesel the difference was only two-tenths of a euro cent," Quattroruote said.
This compared to an average 3.3-euro-cent difference in France between the companies charging the most and the least.
Calculating a fuel tank at 50 liters, the report said the savings for full tank in Italy amounted to only 15 euro cents.
The nine companies suspected of price-fixing have all denied any wrongdoing and said they were confident the probe would clear them.
The companies are: Agip, Esso, Q8, Shell, Tamoil, Total, ERG, IP and API.
In 1999 a similar probe was launched and the oil companies were fined a total of over 300 million euros.
The companies appealed the fine and in the end it was annulled by the country's top administrative court.
Although the prices at Italian pumps were virtually the same, the Quattroruote report found that API and IP on average charged the most for petrol, while ERG and Tamol were the least expensive.
Total was the company which charged the most for diesel fuel and Agip, Esso and Tamoil the least.
The Italian government, intent on introducing reforms to liberalise the fuel sector, appears to have few doubts that competition is not as free and fair as it should be.
"Market distortions are undeniable and they must be overcome through deregulation," said Umberto Carpi, top aide to Industry Minister Pierluigi Bersani.
The antitrust probe into pump prices is expected to be concluded by the end of March 2008.
