German Cartel Office Sees Oligopoly In German Gasoline Market
FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- December 6, 2010: Germany’s Federal Cartel Office said Monday it sticks to its assessment that the country’s gasoline market is dominated by a few companies, and said mergers and takeovers in the gas stations sector will only be allowed under strict conditions.
“The Federal Cartel Office still thinks that the vertically integrated oil companies Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RSDA), BP PLC (BP), ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM), ConocoPhillips (COP) and Total SA (TOT) for a [market] dominant oligopoly on regional filling station markets,” the antitrust authority said in an emailed statement.
Cartel office President Andreas Mundt said takeovers and acquisitions of gas station sites will continue to be granted only under conditions, to “avert a further concentration of the market.”
The cartel office’s comments come after Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG (OMV.VI) last months said it will sell 59 filling stations in eastern Germany to Poland’s PKN Orlen SA (PKN.WA) after the antitrust authority had opposed a sale to France’s Total.
The cartel office blocked Total’s purchase of the OMV filling stations in April 2009, saying it would have given Total and the four other companies an unacceptable market dominant position.
The cartel office’s ruling had subsequently been overturned by a regional court, which disagreed with the regulator’s view. The antitrust authority appealed, prompting OMV to sell the filling stations to PKN Orlen to avert a lengthy legal dispute.
In a separate deal, Shell’s German unit earlier this month acquired 41 filling stations from German retailer Edeka, fewer than previously intended after the cartel office had opposed the original plan on competition grounds.
The cartel office also Monday said it expects to present the findings of a comprehensive sector probe of the gasoline market, which was launched in 2008, at the end of January. In a preliminary report in June 2009 the cartel office had criticized inadequate competition on the German gasoline market.
-By Jan Hromadko, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 503;[email protected]
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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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