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6 - Collusion with Non-express Communication

Retail Gasoline in Norway*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2024

Joseph E. Harrington Jr.
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Maarten Pieter Schinkel
Affiliation:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
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Summary

  • This collusive episode had firms communicating through coded messages on one of the firms’ publicly accessible websites.

  • Like many gasoline markets, prices were subject to price cycles; here, the cycles were on the order of one to two weeks. Communication was key for the market leader Circle K to signal to all firms when to raise price and initiate a new cycle. The way it did this was to provide a coded message on its website. Changing the “valid from” date for the recommended price to the current date signaled for all firms to raise their pump prices to the recommended price. While Circle K typically changed the recommended price, there are instances in which it was left unchanged and only the “valid from” date was updated. Within hours, all firms raised their pump prices to the recommended price on Circle K’s website.

  • Circle K’s communication practice is neither express communication nor price signaling and is properly viewed as non-express communication for which there is a clearly identifiable announcement in the form of updating the “valid from” date to the current date.

Type
Chapter
Information
Cartels Diagnosed
New Insights on Collusion
, pp. 171 - 191
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Eckert, A. (2013) “Empirical Studies of Gasoline Retailing: A Guide to the Literature,” Journal of Economic Surveys, 27, 140166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foros, Ø. and Nguyen-Ones, M. (2021) “Coordinate to Obfuscate? The Role of Prior Announcements of Recommended Prices,” Economics Letters, 198, 109680.Google Scholar
Foros, Ø. and Steen, F. (2013) “Vertical Control and Price Cycles in Gasoline Retailing,” Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 115, 640661.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrington, J. E., Jr. and Leslie, C. R. (2023) “Horizontal Price Exchanges,” Cardozo Law Review, 44, 23012359.Google Scholar
Kaplow, L. (2013) Competition Policy and Price Fixing, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Nguyen-Ones, M., (2020) “Price Coordination with Public Prior Announcements in Retail Gasoline Markets,” working paper, Norwegian School of Economics, July.Google Scholar
Page, W. H. (2009) “Twombly and Communication: The Emerging Definition of Concerted Action under the New Pleading Standards,” Journal of Competition Law & Economics, 5, 439468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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