If you bought gasoline in San Diego and other areas of Southern California during a nine-month period in 2015, you can file a claim to receive a portion of a $37.5 million settlement the state negotiated with trading firms accused of manipulating gas prices.
Earlier this year, the California Attorney General resolved a long-running lawsuit it filed against Dutch multinational energy and commodity trading company Vitol, South Korea-based SK Energy Americas and SK’s trading arm.
The state accused the firms of taking advantage of market conditions after an explosion at a refinery in Torrance knocked off about 10 percent of the state’s supply of gasoline. The lawsuit claimed the companies engaged “in a scheme to drive up gas prices for their own profit” by suppressing competition within the gas market, thus driving up prices for Southern California consumers in 2015.
The opposing sides reached a settlement that will have Vitol and SK pay $37.5 million to the attorney general’s office. In the agreement, there is no admission by either company of legal wrongdoing.
Affected customers can now submit claims online.
State residents who purchased gas in Southern California between Feb. 20, 2015, and Nov. 10, 2015, can file at www.CalGasLitigation.com.
Motorists may be eligible for payment from the $37.5 million fund if they bought gas during that time period in the counties of San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, Imperial, San Bernardino, Kern, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.
The online form requires claimants to submit their driver’s license or state identification numbers, but they do not have to produce any receipts of their gasoline purchases between February and November of 2015.
“I am proud to deliver money back to Californians who were victims of gas price manipulation,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.
The settlement also required Vitol and SK to pay $12.5 million in civil penalties for the legal fees associated with bringing the case, thus bringing the total settlement with the attorney general’s office to $50 million.
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