◦ This case study describes price signaling through a third-party data subscription service.

◦ Informed Sources provided a data subscription service to companies operating in the retail gasoline market in Australia. Each subscribing company provided its prices at a high-frequency (on the order of every fifteen to thirty minutes) to the Informed Sources online platform and was given access to all subscribers’ prices on that platform.

◦ The Informed Sources platform was supportive of collusion as it facilitated coordinating on high prices – by allowing for low-cost signaling of future prices – and monitoring for compliance with those high prices. The platform allowed for tacit and indirect communication, and collusion could occur without explicit and direct communication.

◦ Using data from a similar platform, FuelCheck, empirical evidence is provided that supports this type of platform having anticompetitive effects by reducing the risks and costs associated with price leadership while achieving a common understanding among firms as to the prices to charge.

◦ For policymakers, the case study underscores competitive concerns associated with price-sharing platforms. In particular, the speed and reliability with which communication was possible through the Informed Sources platform substantially removed the usual deterrents to firms’ using prices for signaling.