The owner of a Żabbar petrol station filed a judicial application yesterday demanding compensation for loss of income following a decision by the Commission for Fair Trading finding Enemalta Corporation had breached competition law.

The owner of Hompesch petrol station said he had not benefited from a rise in commission granted by Enemalta due to an illegal condition, which it did not follow, laid down in a 1997 agreement between the corporation and the Malta Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU.

The application was filed against Enemalta, the Malta Resources Authority, the Minister for Resources and Rural Affairs and the GRTU.

The claim for damages follows a ruling by the Fair Trading Commission in March, which confirmed a decision by the Office of Fair Trading. The OFT had concluded that the 1997 agreement on the sale of fuel and commissions given to petrol pump owners breached competition law. It had also found that the agreement, as devised by the GRTU and the government, amounted to anti-competitive practice and, coupled with the failure of the MRA to regulate, effectively limited and controlled the market of fuel sales.

The Fair Trading Commission had noted that the March 18, 1997, agreement between the GRTU and Enemalta raised the commission given to petrol pump owners from €0.0295 to €0.0388 per litre, on condition that the owners installed automatic pumps, which had to be operated during certain hours of the day.

The owner of the Żabbar station, Disma Attard, realised that the machine he installed was defective and began to use a different system of distributing fuel: vehicle owners would pay a cashier and the customer would then fill up his/her own tank. This, Mr Attard said, proved very popular with customers and sales of fuel skyrocketed, catching the attention of Enemalta, which then ruled that, since the petrol station was not abiding by the conditions in the agreement, it could not receive a higher commission.

In 1999, the GRTU told petrol pump owners it had been decided at an annual general meeting that no employees should be present to provide service at petrol stations after 6 p.m., on public holidays and Sundays and that the service had to also be fully automatic after that time. It was at that point that Hompesch petrol station filed a complaint with the Commission for Fair Trading. Still, Enemalta renewed its agreement with the GRTU again laying down that the higher commission applied only when automatic pumps were operated. A legal notice along those lines was published by the government in 2002.

However, the Commission for Fair Trading declared in March that such arrangements undermined and restricted fair competition and, therefore, broke the law.

Since the Żabbar petrol station had, to this day, not received a higher commission, as a direct result of this illegal action, Mr Attard said he was holding all involved responsible for any damages.

Lawyers Franco Vassallo and Joseph Camilleri signed the application.