Fed: ACCC raids oil company offices
CANBERRA, April 24 AAP - Consumer watchdog investigators today began sifting throughdocuments seized during raids on oil companies, looking for evidence of price collusion.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) yesterday carried out raidson the offices of oil companies including Shell, Mobil and Caltex in Sydney, Newcastleand Melbourne.
The raids followed a tip-off by a whistleblower, who the ACCC said had alerted it toevidence of possible price fixing and collusion.
"The commission has formed the belief that there may have been a breach of the TradePractices Act, or breaches," ACCC chairman Professor Allan Fels told ABC radio.
"We've not reached a final conclusion but there are certainly strong grounds for investigationbased on the information that has been provided to us."
Motoring organisations had complained of price hikes over the Easter holiday period.
Some independent retailers also were being investigated and the ACCC was likely touse its powers to interview witnesses, Prof Fels said.
He said it would take weeks to look at the evidence.
"It is likely that there will be a follow-up in terms of using our powers to crossexamine witnesses from oil companies and so on," Prof Fels told the Nine Network.
The raids followed anonymous phone calls and letters from a woman who alleged pricefixing in the oil industry.
Prof Fels said the documents entitled the ACCC to enter the offices of the companies.
" ... some documents which I don't think were forged or fraudulent ... put compellingreasons to us as to why we should investigate," he said.
"The commission has, in terms of the Trade Practices Act, reached the view that theremay have been a contravention of the act based on the information provided to us.
"And that has entitled us to enter the premises of oil companies to get further information."
AAP lm/pw/bwl/sp
KEYWORD: PETROL ACCC LEAD
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