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Big Oil Guilty of Price Fixing?

On May 26 an article appeared in the Washington Post entitled "Peeved at Prices? Don't Blame the Dealer". This story profiled a couple of different Exxon franchisees in the D.C. area, and it put the spotlight about what's happening behind the scenes at gas stations during our worsening fuel crisis.

It seems that ExxonMobil owns the land upon which the franchisees' retail outlets sit. And would you believe that ExxonMobil is jacking up the rent at super steep rates (e.g., 30% over three years)? Such cost hikes to the dealer are coming at a time when profits are seemingly flat.

One franchisee said that "Exxon magically lets me make about 8 cents a gallon" regardless of the price. On the topic of local pricing, he went further by saying that he's had the same tanker come to more than one of his five stations to deliver the same gas to stations with different retail prices, and he was charged different wholesale prices from ExxonMobil.... and always 8 cents per gallon below the retail. One would think that gasoline coming out of the same delivery tanker would be priced the same, but such is not the case with ExxonMobil. Variable wholesale rates? Are you kidding me?

Is this price fixing? A layperson like me says "yes"!! I'll let you be the judge about whether something a little fishy is going on. Just keep in mind that the retailers are getting the shaft just like you and me.

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