Oil Companies Face Antitrust Hearing Over Alleged Price Fixing

"For the moment, nothing has yet been decided. We will listen to the parties concerned during these two days, and it is after that that the council can make a decision," confides a source close to the Competition Council to L’Économiste. But the tone is serious on the side of the oil companies.

"This is a file that is following its course. (...) We were summoned for an oral session, to present and plead the case and defend our client before all the members of the council," says the lawyer for the oil company ZIZ, Kamal Habachi. According to him, the new competition council is not authorized to settle the matter, because at the time the complaint was filed, this council had not yet been appointed, nor composed, and the law had not yet come into force.

"So for us, this complaint is inadmissible. The plaintiff does not have the capacity to file this complaint, because at the time the persons authorized to file complaints were limited by law. And on the merits, we reject the grievances that concern us, namely the price-fixing and the sharing of sensitive information," he continues.

Kamal Habachi says he trusts the competition council. "We trust the council and its members, and of course we will challenge any sanction, if any, at the end of these sessions," he assures. In the event that the decision is not in our favor, we reserve the right to appeal the decision to the Court of Appeal of Rabat. For the lawyer, taxing these companies up to 10% of their turnover, knowing that the margin in this type of activity is very low, is rather to drive them to bankruptcy.