Italy’s antitrust authority disclosed in a statement that the offices of several oil companies, including Italy’s Eni and Exxon Mobil Corp’s ESSO Italiana unit, have been searched over alleged fuel price violations.

The authority, which carried out the inspections with the help of Italy’s tax police, indicated it was probing irregularities concerning prices being charged at the pump which were higher than those advertised, as well failures in advertising fuel prices.

Eni, Esso, Italia Petroli, Kuwait Petroleum Italia and Tamoil allegedly failed to adopt appropriate measures “to prevent and counteract this unlawful conduct to the detriment of consumers,” the competition watchdog said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Eni had no immediate comment, while the other companies involved were not immediately available for comment.

Fuel prices have taken center stage in Italy after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s executive dropped a costly reduction in excise duties introduced by the previous government when the price of petrol exceeded 2 euros per litre.

Countries Reeling Under Hardship

Meanwhile, at a time when countries are reeling under unprecedented hardship, many oil companies are taking advantage of the situation and making huge profits. This amounts to rubbing more salt on the wounds of inflation-stricken people. It is, therefore, a matter of satisfaction that the authorities in Italy have finally taken notice of these companies blatantly selling their products at higher rates.

Meanwhile, a similar situation is happening in Ghana where the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) is accusing OMCs of overpricing fuel for the first pricing window of January 2023.

Detailing its projections and predictions for the first window, COPEC stated that fuel petrol should be sold at GH¢10.59 and diesel at GH¢12.84. Based on this, COPEC called for deepened investigations into the pricing regime used by OMCs as it noted that its projections were based on the dollar rate.

The dynamic fuel pricing policy offers several advantages to OMCs as well as customers. For starters, any fluctuations in global crude oil prices are immediately reflected in the daily revised prices. Moreover, the dynamic fuel pricing policy helps OMCs and petrol dealers across the country to better manage their equity capital as soon as there is a rise or dip in global crude oil prices. That notwithstanding, the greed of some OMCs is the cause of overpricing.