Australia: New Petrol Commissioner To Tackle Fuel Wholesalers

Joe Dimasi, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's executive general manager of regulatory affairs, told local media he wanted to immediately tackle problems in the wholesale market. "People buy petrol from retail sites and that's where a lot of the attention understandably is," he said.
'But a lot of the action is at the wholesale level."

Mr Dimasi, 51, said he had plenty of power to crack down on allegations of collusion and price gouging by oil companies. He said this was despite the fact the Government had not yet given the ACCC stronger powers to deal with alleged price fixing by oil cartels, after strong recommendations to do so.

He said he would focus on impediments to competition in the wholesale market revealed by the ACCC's petrol inquiry, including the ability for independents to access import terminal facilities.

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