Anti-competitive practices/Hydrocarbons: payment of more than 1.84 billion dirhams by the companies concerned and their professional organization

The Competition Council announced on Thursday that the transaction agreements concluded by companies operating in the markets for the supply, storage and distribution of diesel and gasoline, as well as their professional organization, relate to the payment, as a transactional settlement, of 1,840,410,426 dirhams.

These agreements put an end to the litigation procedures opened against these companies and their professional organizations which were notified of this decision on November 23, 2023, the Competition Council announced in a press release.

Said agreements also relate to the subscription of a set of behavioral commitments to which these companies as well as their professional organization have subscribed in order to improve the competitive functioning of the hydrocarbon market in the future, to prevent the risks of harm to competition for the benefit of consumers, specifies the press release.

“Following the amendments made to the legal framework governing competition in Morocco, after the entry into force of Law No. 40-21 modifying and supplementing Law No. 104-12 relating to freedom of prices and competition, and Law No. 41-21 amending and supplementing Law No. 20-13 relating to the Competition Council and their respective implementing decrees, the General Rapporteur of the Council indicated, in his press release dated June 2023, that the Council of competition has decided to refer for investigation the file relating to possible anti-competitive practices in the hydrocarbon market, in accordance with the provisions of article 38 bis of the aforementioned law 104.12”, recalls the same source.

Thus, and following the investigative actions carried out by the competent services of the Council, grievances were notified to nine companies operating in the markets for the supply, storage and distribution of Diesel and Petrol as well as to their professional organization, in accordance with the provisions of Article 29 of Law No. 104.12 mentioned above. This notification of grievances was the subject of the General Rapporteur’s press release dated August 2023.

Following which, the companies concerned and their professional organization wished to benefit from the provisions provided for by the legal framework mentioned above, in particular the transactional procedure provided for in Article 37 of Law No. 104-12 as amended and supplemented.

In response, and in accordance with the provisions of this article (article 37), the College of the Council examined and validated the requests to open discussions submitted by the companies concerned and their professional organization. To this end, the College of the Council has mandated the General Rapporteur to initiate formal discussions with each of the companies concerned and their professional organization, and to submit transaction proposals to them within the limits set for it.

These discussions resulted in the signing of transaction minutes recording the agreement of these companies and their professional organization on the transaction proposals submitted to them.

Subsequently and in accordance with current legislation, the Board met to rule on the transaction minutes submitted to it and decided, unanimously of its members, to validate the transaction agreements concluded.

In addition, the Competition Council specifies that the commitments made within the framework of this transactional procedure are obligatory and monitoring of their execution will be ensured by the Council’s services.

They concern the establishment of a competition law compliance program which will reflect the commitment of companies, expressed at the highest level of their hierarchy, to respect competition rules.

This program will notably include a mapping of competitive risks within these companies, effective internal alert systems, as well as the designation, by their governing bodies, of an internal manager responsible for implementing and monitoring the program. compliance.

In addition, and with a view to enabling the Council to monitor the competitive functioning of the markets concerned, in particular with regard to the correlation between the public selling prices of Diesel and Petrol and the international prices of these refined products. , said commitments provide for the establishment and sending of a detailed statement allowing the monitoring of the supply, storage and distribution activity of Diesel and Petrol by each company.

This reporting, which will be spread over a period of three years with quarterly feedback, will include in particular the monthly purchases and sales at stations carried out by each company, as well as their stock levels of Diesel and Petrol.

The companies concerned have also undertaken to change their prices, as necessary, depending on the evolution of supply and demand on the market, and according to the supply cycle, storage constraints, and the commercial policy specific to each company.

These companies will also ensure that their price change system directly gives independent service stations in their network full latitude to change public selling prices at their level, immediately, at any time and without prior approval.

In the same sense, the said companies have undertaken not to link, in any way whatsoever, direct or indirect, the benefit of rebate or discount programs or any other similar program from which service stations may benefit, to compliance with by the service station of the prices recommended by them.

Furthermore, and with a view to preventing the risks of anti-competitive practices linked to the exchange of sensitive information, the commitments made provide for the adoption and implementation of best practices relating to the collection, exchange or sharing of this information, and particularly at the level of the management of common storage infrastructures, and joint supply operations of Diesel and Petrol. Guidelines will be adopted and published by the Council to ensure that these activities are carried out in compliance with applicable competition legislation.

Finally, and with the aim of guaranteeing the effective implementation of the aforementioned commitments, the Competition Council will monitor them in accordance with the legislation in force, and to this end periodic evaluation reports will be communicated to it by the companies concerned. and their grouping.