ACCC delays final ruling on BP, Woolworths deal

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The consumer watchdog has delayed its final decision on BP’s proposed $1.8 billion acquisition of Woolworths’ 527 retail service station sites. The former proposed decision date of October 26 has been pushed back to November 30 to allow more time for analysis of data and information provided by all parties involved, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a statement. The proposed commercial alliance between BP Australia, BP resellers and Woolworths, would allow BP service stations to accept Woolworths shopper dockets and participate in the Woolworths loyalty program. In August, a draft decision released by the ACCC proposed to approve the deal.
The decision was welcomed by independent supermarkets and fuel retailers. “BP is pleased with the ACCC’s findings that the proposed arrangements will generate public benefits in the form of the additional availability of docket redemption sites, greater uptake of docket discounts, and increased opportunities to earn and redeem benefits under the Woolworths Rewards loyalty program,” a spokesperson for BP said at the time. But in its statement of issues, the ACCC said it was concerned that the deal may lessen competition in fuel retailing, saying that Woolworths “actively leads price discounting or quickly reacts to price discounting by other retailers”.
It said a more competitive pricing strategy would replace one that discounts later and less deeply. The deal would also enable remaining fuel retailers to co-ordinate price increases more effectively, the ACCC said. The ACCC has had longstanding concerns that supermarket docket discounts on fuel drive anti-competitive behaviour and in 2013, it banned Coles and Woolworths from discounting fuel on supermarket dockets in excess of 4c per litre. See: Woolworths – Kink in the fuel line, Aug-17.
Source: www.theaustralian.com