By Adam Whittaker

Italy's competition authority imposed more than $1.09 billion of fines on Eni and five other oil companies after closing a probe into allegations they set up a cartel to raise fuel prices.

The Italian Competition Authority on Friday closed its two-year investigation into the country's most important oil operators and said that some of them coordinated to set the value of the bio component factored into fuel prices. The regulator imposed fines totaling 936.7 million euros ($1.09 billion), it said.

Eni received the largest fine at 336 million euros while ExxonMobil's Esso's totaled 129 million euros. The regulator levied 173 million euros on Q8, 164 million euros on Ip, 91 million euros on Tamoil and 44 million euros on Saras.

In response, Eni said it will contest the fine in court and questioned the regulator's evidence. Esso, Ip, Tamoil and Saras weren't immediately available for comment.

The Italian Competition Authority said the probe--triggered by a whistleblower's complaint--showed the six companies raised prices in parallel aided by information exchanges among them. It said this began in January 2020 and continued until June 2023, during which time the price of the biofuel component tripled.

Write to Adam Whittaker at adam.whittaker@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 26, 2025 06:27 ET (10:27 GMT)

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