An investigation shows most of the deals are against current legislation governing competition. Neste Oil has agreements with 250 service stations. The authority’s ruling allows 160 stations to end their deal by the end of the year. The authority’s investigation found gas stations could not terminate such agreements without incurring considerable financial drawbacks.
In practice, service stations are tied to the oil company. At first, Neste denied it had entered into such binding agreements. However, it later admitted their existence and gave the Competition Authority an assurance service stations would be allowed to terminate any deal without sanctions. Neste controls over 80% of Finland’s oil product sales. (petrolplaza)
