Competition authorities fine Repsol €20 million and prohibit some of its subsidiaries from participating in public contracts.

BarcelonaThe Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has imposed fines totaling €20.5 million on several Repsol Group companies and banned them from participating in public contracts, the agency, chaired by Cani Fernández, announced on Tuesday. Specifically, the CNMC sanctioned Repsol Comercial de Productos Petrolíferos, Solred, and Campsa Estaciones de Servicio for implementing an "abusive" profit margin reduction policy, to the detriment of independent service stations with which it competes. According to the agency, during the sanctioned period, the energy company held a dominant position in the wholesale market for automotive fuels at service stations nationwide. "Competition law requires that companies in a dominant position bear particular responsibility for not restricting competition," the CNMC added.

This reduction in profit margins, as explained by the Competition Authority, is "prohibited conduct" for companies in a dominant position under Article 2 of the Competition Act (LDC) and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). In this case, Repsol's behavior allegedly affected the sale of diesel A (GOA) at rival service stations, which then supply this fuel to professional customers, primarily transport companies.

At the end of 2022, the CNMC inspected the headquarters of several hydrocarbon operators after receiving numerous complaints from industry associations, and in December 2023, it initiated sanction proceedings against Repsol for a possible abuse of its dominant market position. This all coincided with the fuel price increases that occurred following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which triggered a severe cost-of-living crisis.

For all these reasons, the CNMC has imposed a fine of €20.5 million on several companies in the group for a "very serious" infringement. Furthermore, RSE (the current name of Repsol Comercial de Productos Petrolíferos), Campsa, and Solred will be prohibited from participating in public tenders for the supply of diesel A automotive fuel for a period of six months.

Repsol's response

In response to this decision, Repsol "strongly" rejected the sanction announced by the CNMC and announced that it will appeal the fine in court. "It is based on a biased and decontextualized account, with methodological and legal errors, which ignores the exceptional context of 2022 and fails to demonstrate either a dominant position or an exclusionary effect on the market," the company emphasized. In this regard, it asserted that it acted "transparently and in the best interests of consumers at the height of the inflationary crisis." Repsol criticizes this as "the first time in the history of national and EU competition law" that the CNMC has sanctioned a company "for applying discounts, in this case exceeding 450 million euros, publicly communicated and monitored by the administration itself, to alleviate the precarious situation of families and professionals." The group believes its market share in this specific segment was around 25% in 2022 and denounces the fact that no company has ever been sanctioned for a market share below 30% and for a short period marked by "exceptional" conditions.