FOLLOW US

France’s top competition watchdog on Monday leveled nearly €187.5 million ($217.4 million) in fines against the owners of Corsica’s only two fuel depots—including energy heavyweight TotalEnergies—accusing the companies of locking up the island’s fuel supply to shut out rivals.

Watchdog Says Firms Rigged Access to Island’s Only Fuel Depots

The Autorité de la concurrence announced sanctions against TotalEnergies Marketing France, EG Retail, and two subsidiaries of Rubis—Rubis Terminal and Rubis Énergie—for coordinating an anticompetitive agreement that effectively forced competing distributors to purchase road fuel from the very companies that controlled the depots.

All four sanctioned companies are shareholders of Dépôts Pétroliers de la Corse (DPLC), which oversees Corsica’s fuel supply, storage and distribution. According to regulators, the companies used their collective control to squeeze out non-shareholder competitors by restricting access and dictating purchasing terms.

“This situation harmed their competitiveness and was ultimately detrimental to consumers, as it led to higher fuel prices at the pump,” the authority said, warning that the scheme hit households already heavily reliant on cars due to the island’s geography.

How the Scheme Worked

A Closed Circuit in a Captive Market

Corsica has no refineries and only two fuel depots, both operating under a storage-capacity pooling system managed by DPLC. Between 2016 and 2023, depot access was governed by a contract that banned operators from renting individual storage space. Instead, companies could only tap into available stock—but only if they were members of the DPLC system.

Until January 2023, DPLC membership required being a shareholder. Any operator without shares had no choice but to buy its road fuel directly from one of the depot owners—its own competitor.

The watchdog said these membership conditions lacked “objective, transparent and non-discriminatory” criteria and ultimately created unequal treatment that could foreclose non-shareholder operators.

Concentrated Market, Higher Prices

The authority noted that Corsica’s fuel distribution market is unusually concentrated, with only three major operators and few competitive pressures—unlike mainland France, where large retail chains often disrupt fuel prices.

Historically, TotalEnergies, Shell, BP, and Esso jointly controlled DPLC. From 2010 to 2017, a series of asset transfers shifted control, leaving Rubis with a dominant stake—70% through Rubis Terminal and 5% through Rubis Énergie.