油價與反競爭行為

支持競爭法者，常以油價的「前後腳升降」為操縱價格的證據。然而，油價趨同，其實可能是市場結構下的競爭結果而非反競爭行為。

"Consider four gasoline stations on the four coners of a busy intersection......Any firm that fails to matach a price cut initiated by one of the other firms, or that increases its own price, will immediately lose many sales. As a result any firm that is thinking about cutting its price below that of the others can confidently predict that the cut will be immediately matached. The cut will not generate very much new business but will maintain maket shares at a lower price. Furthermore, gasoline is a fungible product......In such setting it would be counterproductive to find that the firms acted unlawfully just because they matched prices. They may have little choice except to match." - The Antitrust Enterprise by Herbert Hovenkamp

究竟香港立法之日，是否有足夠經濟專才分清糾纏不清的競爭與反競爭行為﹖