US regulators urge states to help investigate oil price-fixing

Federal antitrust regulators told state attorneys general on Friday to help investigate unlawful conduct in oil markets, a move that could ripple into gasoline prices, freight bills and household budgets if companies are found to be manipulating supply or colluding on price. In a letter reviewed by CBS News, Justice Department Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson said recent volatility in crude oil prices does not suspend antitrust laws or state consumer protection laws.

The message was explicit: companies may not use market swings as cover for anticompetitive practices, fraud or other lawlessness that harms Americans. The agencies also said states can police price-gouging under their own laws, since the federal government does not have specific authority to enforce price-gouging statutes. That distinction matters for consumers because retail gas prices often move unevenly even when crude prices fall, feeding the longstanding question of whether margins are widening somewhere between the wellhead and the pump.

The FTC said oil and gasoline are critical commodities and that it devotes significant resources to reviewing oil mergers, investigating possible antitrust violations, monitoring prices in hundreds of U.S. markets and studying petroleum competition. The National Association of Attorneys General said its antitrust work dates to 1907, when it was founded in part to coordinate state responses to Standard Oil, and that almost every state has laws banning price-fixing and monopolization. NAAG also said state attorneys general can enforce both federal and state antitrust laws on their own or in multistate groups.

The timing sharpened the signal. Just one day earlier, the Justice Department announced a civil antitrust case with 17 state attorneys general against Cal-Maine Foods, Hickman’s Egg Ranch, Centrum Valley Holdings, Versova Holdings and Versova Management Cooperative over coordinated manipulation of egg prices. That filing showed federal and state enforcers are already working together in a price-sensitive market, not just issuing warnings from Washington.

The pressure on oil companies did not begin with this letter. In 2024, senators and House lawmakers urged the Justice Department to investigate possible antitrust violations in the oil industry, including potential collusion involving U.S. producers and OPEC and OPEC+. The new push suggests regulators are keeping the industry under active scrutiny, even as they stop short of saying an oil case is imminent.