Washington Post: Court to decide Shell, Texaco gas case
By James Vicini
Reuters
Monday, June 27, 2005
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide the antitrust liability of a joint venture that sets the same selling price for different brand products in a case involving a gasoline price-fixing lawsuit against Shell Oil Co. and Texaco Inc.
The justices agreed to hear appeals by the two oil companies of a U.S. appeals court ruling that the antitrust law’s automatic prohibition against price fixing applied to the economic arrangements under their two joint ventures.
The appeals court reinstated a lawsuit brought by 23,000 gas station owners in the western United States who said the two companies conspired to fix prices for their gasoline brands through the two joint ventures set up in 1998.
The joint ventures took over the gasoline wholesaling and retaining operations of the two companies. One venture, called Equilon Enterprises, operated in the U.S. West while the other one, Motiva Enterprises, covered the eastern United States.
Texaco left the joint venture when it merged with Chevron Corp. in 2001 to form ChevronTexaco Corp.. The company now is called Chevron Corp. Shell Oil is a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell.
A federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed the lawsuit, but the California-based appeals court ruled it could go forward.
The appeals court said the companies could be held liable for price fixing under federal antitrust law because the joint ventures priced Texaco and Shell gasoline the same.
The companies have said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved the two joint ventures and that they cannot be held liable under the antitrust laws.
The U.S. Justice Department supported the oil companies and urged the Supreme Court to correct the appeals court’s ruling.
It said the appeals court made a serious mistake by ruling that an agreement between the owners of a lawful joint venture to price their products the same may be treated, just by itself, as a violation of the antitrust laws.
“There is no basis for serious suggestion in this case that the formation of Equilon was a mere sham designed to mask cartel conduct,” Solicitor General Paul Clement of the Justice Department told the high court.
The Chamber of Commerce business group and the National Association of Manufactures also supported the appeal by the two oil companies.
The Washington Legal Foundation, a conservative public interest legal group, warned that the appeals court ruling “would open a Pandora’s box of antitrust liability for joint ventures.”
The Supreme Court will hear arguments and then issue a ruling in the case during its upcoming term that begins in October.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
