MILAN, Italy, Sept 26, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Italy's antitrust regulator said Friday it has slapped Italian energy giant Eni and five other companies with fines totalling more than 936 million euros ($1.1 billion) for "restricting competition" in the sale of fuel.

The authority said in a statement that Eni, Esso, Ip, Q8, Saras and Tamoil "coordinated to set the value of the bio component factored into fuel prices", which tripled between 2019 and 2023.

A probe following a whistleblower's complaint revealed that "the companies implemented parallel price increases -- largely coinciding -- which were driven by direct or indirect information exchanges among them", the authority said.

"The cartel began on 1 January 2020 and continued until 30 June 2023," it added.

Eni expressed its "strongest disagreement and surprise" over the "incomprehensible and unfounded" accusations, saying it would take legal action.

The regulator's case "ignores market logic and misrepresents the facts, taking legitimate communications related to mutual supply relationships between operators out of context," it said.