The 2.7 million dollar fine imposed under the competition protection law is equal to 2.6 percent of ARMO’s annual turnover for 2009
Tirana Times
TIRANA, July 26 – Albanian oil refinery ARMO has been fined 271.8 million lek (2.7 million dollars) for abusing its dominant position with the trade of low-grade D2 diesel. The decision was announced on Monday by the Competition Authority after a thorough investigation into the company’s activity for the January-October period last year, when the newly privatized company was granted by government the exclusivity of trading D2 diesel in Albania.
The Competition authority said that ARMO abused its dominant position by applying different prices and trading conditions which put wholesale D2 companies under unfair competition conditions.
The 2.7 million dollar fine imposed under the competition protection law is equal to 2.6 percent of ARMO’s annual turnover for 2009, said the Authority.
The decision will be implemented by the Tax Investigation unit of the General Tax Directorate.
ARMO is owned by a US and Swiss consortium headed by Anika Enterprise, a company controlled by Albanian businessman Rezart Taci which in 2008 bought 85 percent of state oil company ARMO for 128 million euros ($183 million).
The company which controls 25 to 30 percent of the country’s oil market has two refineries in Ballsh and Fier, one thermal power plant and some 1,600 employees.
Following the privatisation, the government restricted the import of high-sulphur D2 diesel by other importers, leaving ARMO as the sole supplier.
In July 2009, Albania’s Constitutional Court struck down a government decision that gave a virtual monopoly to local refiner ARMO for the production and sale of low-grade D2 diesel. The court upheld an appeal submitted by a syndicate of fuel importers, who complained that the decision that ARMO should be the only supplier of D2 diesel created a virtual monopoly.
