Rabby F. Syed, Jose P. Kiyoshi, and Felipe Q. Atalig named Mobil Oil Mariana Islands Inc. and Mariana Acquisition Corp., d.b.a. Shell Mariana, in their class action complaint.
They want a jury trial.
The Variety tried but failed to get a comment from Mobil and Shell yesterday.
The plaintiffs accused Mobil and Shell of price fixing, false advertisement, unfair and deceptive business practices, and fraud.
“For too long, Mobil and Shell have acted as a cartel in restraint of fair trade and engaged in price fixing in the commonwealth,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney Ramon K. Quichocho.
According to the lawsuit, “Mobil and Shell have colluded with each other to keep the price of unleaded fuel artificially high and to avoid competition with each other.”
It added, “Mobil and Shell have deceived, misled, and confused the consumers of the commonwealth with a pricing scheme that unfairly rounds up sales prices to their advantage,” the complaint stated.
The complaint stated that “Mobil and Shell, on information and belief, were engaged in non-merger, anticompetitive, and price-fixing activities, relating to the sourcing, distribution, sale, and pricing of regular unleaded gasoline.”
Mobil and Shell started their fuel supply, and distribution operation here on Jan. 18, 1985, and Sept. 21, 1982, respectively.
“Since then, and until now, Mobil Oil and Shell Marianas have built a monopoly in the fuel supply industry in the CNMI as there have been no other fuel suppliers in the CNMI other than [Mobil and Shell],” the complaint stated.
It noted that the current advertised price of regular unleaded is “$3.479 per gallon.”
“When one carefully pumps exactly one gallon up to the third decimal point, i.e., 1.000, the gas pump report for the gallon of gasoline purchased would not be $3.479 but $3.48,” the complaint stated.
It said “[Mobil and Shell] use a rounding scheme that rounds up more often then it rounds down, when [Mobil and Shell] have the ability to use, and could use a rounding scheme fairly rounds to the next whole cent.”
The plaintiffs are asking the court “an award of punitive damages in an amount to be proven in trial” as well as award of damages, including liquidated damages, attorney’s fees, and costs, “jointly and severally, from Mobil and Shell.
