NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) - The U.S Federal TradeCommission has followed the European Union in opening a formalprobe into how crude oil and refined fuel prices are set,Bloomberg News reported on Monday without naming any sources.
It said the investigation was in a preliminary stage, butwould likely broaden. The FTC is reviewing the progress ofEuropean authorities, and has agreed with the Department ofJustice's antitrust division to handle the probe, Bloombergreported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The FTC has conducted several inquiries into U.S. oil pricesover the past few years, and is often called on to investigatepossible anti-competitive practices when prices surge. Howeverthose investigations have typically been focused on marketfundamentals rather than the mechanics of setting prices.
The probe comes more than a month after European authoritiesraided the offices of major oil traders including Royal DutchShell, BP and Statoil to investigate suspected manipulation.They also visited price publisher Platts, a unit of McGraw-HillFinancial, whose daily price assessments are widelyused as the benchmark for many global oil markets.