The Competition Tribunal solved the inquiry by Shell Chile S.A.C.I., regarding a policy adopted by Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC), consisting in a series of administrative acts, by which said authority privileged the use of underground piping systems for providing fuel to airplanes, over the use of refueler trucks.
The Competition Tribunal stated that DGAC had not actually generated a monopoly in this market, since the companies who owned the piping systems could compete against each other, and also because access to the piping systems by third parties was possible. Nevertheless, the Tribunal stated that DGAC’s decision had tended to alter competitive conditions in this market when classifying underground piping systems as an essential facility. If there are technical or security reasons for this decision, DGAC should have made sure that access conditions were non discriminatory, and that the price charged for access did not constitute a barrier to entry to the market of fuel provision to aircraft.
The Tribunal stated that it would have been convenient that DGAC had submitted an inquiry regarding conditions to impose to owners of underground piping systems, even if they were not forced by law to do so. Nevertheless, the Tribunal recommended DGAC to submit inquiries from now on, before posting tender bases for assigning concessions for operating underground piping systems.