Previous Story
AGO-FTC probe on Mobil’s prices continues
|
Posted on Sep 01 2005
The Attorney General’s Office’s probe into Mobil Oil company’s pump prices in the CNMI continues in collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission.
CNMI consumer counsel Brian Caldwell said Mobil has submitted to his office documents that were the subject of an AGO subpoena. Caldwell said the FTC has been reviewing the documents.
The AGO wants to find out if Mobil’s pricing practices constitute unlawful conduct.
CNMI consumer counsel Brian Caldwell had asked the FTC to look into the fuel industry’s pricing on the islands, following complaints that Mobil’s pump prices on Rota and Tinian breached $3 per gallon, when both Mobil and Shell were rolling back fuel prices on Saipan.
Sometime in June, the AGO served Mobil with a 10-page “civil investigative demand,” vowing to look into Mobil’s pricing structure, the ownership of retail stations, fuel distribution routes and relationship to competitors, among other information.
Caldwell also said that he would study the recent policy adopted in Hawaii, which set caps to pump prices.
He said that, while the CNMI Consumer Protection Act prohibits price fixing, the Hawaii example would be worth looking at.
