Suncor admits Ontario gasoline price fixing

[Maxt]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/busines...174/story.html

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s biggest oil refiner and retailer, said on Friday it agreed to pay a $500,000 fine after pleading guilty to charges that it and a competitor worked to fix the price of gasoline in a small Ontario city in 2007.

The Canadian Competition Bureau charged that Pioneer and Suncor’s Sunoco retail gas chain in Belleville, a city of 49,000 172 kilometres east of Toronto, co-ordinated their response to changes in their competitors’ gasoline prices between May and November 2007, an offence under the Competition Act.

Suncor and Pioneer, an independent gasoline retailer, have a joint venture, operated by Pioneer, that owns gasoline stations in Ontario.

“Our representative understood the rules barring competitive communication but believed they did not include Pioneer because they were an owner in the joint venture,” said Sneh Seetal, a spokeswoman for Suncor.

Seetal said that once Suncor was informed of the bureau’s investigation it moved to ensure that there were no more communications on gasoline pricing with Pioneer and boosted competition-law training for its employees.

The case was heard in the Ontario Superior Court in Belleville.
© Copyright (c) Reuters

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/busines...#ixzz1ryHWOW8A

[syritis]

yay 5 years later they get a slap on the wrist for molesting people wallets. I hate this country when i see shit like this.

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by syritis
yay 5 years later they get a slap on the wrist for molesting people wallets. I hate this country when i see shit like this.

$500k is like what? One day of earnings for the company (not even)?

[se7en]

I would say it's probably more like a few minutes work for suncor...I wonder how much higher they made the price though. A few cents really doesn't change things in the grand scheme of things.

[Maxt]

As long as its a minor(for them) monetary fine, it will continue.. If the Government grew a set and took away 4 or 5 suits away in cuffs for 6 months or so, it would sent a much clearer message.

[ipeefreely]

There was a bunch of other companies that got fined last month for the same thing:CBC News Ontario gas stations fined $2M for price fixing

[syritis]

Originally posted by Maxt
As long as its a minor(for them) monetary fine, it will continue.. If the Government grew a set and took away 4 or 5 suits away in cuffs for 6 months or so, it would sent a much clearer message.

half truth

the whole truth is that they won't, canada makes too much money from gas taxes. as the price goes up so does their revenue. this was just a cash grab that looks like it was in the public's interest.

[Maybelater]

Originally posted by Maxt
As long as its a minor(for them) monetary fine, it will continue.. If the Government grew a set and took away 4 or 5 suits away in cuffs for 6 months or so, it would sent a much clearer message.

Government is in bed with big business.

[Maxt]

Originally posted by Maybelater


Government is in bed with big business.

That, and a lot of our business laws are generally toothless.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[kertejud2]

Originally posted by HiTempguy1


$500k is like what? One day of earnings for the company (not even)?

They probably just took it out of petty cash.

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by kertejud2


They probably just took it out of petty cash.

That's what I meant by $500k of net cash. I mean, the company I work for could survive that, and we're "small" compared to a company like Suncor. It's beyond ridiculous.

Just remember though, if you "illegally" download the wrong file that someone is watching you take from the interwebs, BOOM, financially crippling fines and possibly jail time.

Sometimes it just makes you shake your head

[trliniar]

trust me.. 500K is chump change.. barely got noticed in the paperwork. and I am not exagerating