ONTARIO – “Fuel pricing optimization” company Kalibrate Canada, Inc. must provide the Canadian Competition Bureau records relating to the pricing services the company provides to the retail gas industry.
The Federal Court of Canada issued the order last month at the request of the Bureau, which is investigating not only how Kalibrate provides pricing guidance to gas station operators, but how it provides operators with competitive information.
Kalibrate Canada, a subsidiary of Kalibrate Technologies Ltd., a UK-based provider of data and consulting services to various industries, owns an extensive database of Canadian fuel retailers, including data it secured when it purchased data and pricing company Kent Group Ltd., in 2019. Kalibrate has considerable reach. This month it issued a mid-year industry-wide financial report based on data it says it collected from nearly 7,000 of the more than 11,700 gasoline stations across Canada, just one of 70 countries in which it operates. Customers featured on its website include convenience stores, grocery stores, and other retailers, e.g., 7-Eleven, Aldi Grocery Stores, Circle K convenience stores, Jersey Mike’s Subs restaurants, and Tennessee-based Tri Star Energy, a gas distributor and convenience store operator.
The Bureau is careful to say it’s merely investigating and has not concluded there has been any wrongdoing.
Read algorithmic price fixing commentary by Jonathan Rubin: