Mr. Jeremy Godfrey:

We enforce the laws as they are and the law we enforce is a law against collusion and it is a law that requires price displays. That is what we enforce. Our advice to consumers is around having the price displayed. I take the Senator’s point that there may be isolated filling stations where there may not be much alternative but, in general, our role is to make sure that consumers have a choice and that businesses that are competing set their prices independently. Mr. McHugh referred to the mergers we have dealt with, and that is another thing we do. We make sure that when there is a merger, that does not result in a substantial lessening of choice for consumers. Our role is to make sure that within the mechanism by which a number of businesses are competing, they set their prices independently and the consumers know the prices before they buy. That is our role: to make sure that mechanism works and there is pressure on those businesses to set their prices at a level that is dictated by those competitive pressures. We do not tell people what level of price to charge. We do not control the level of price.