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MADISON — Five months after a federal judge declared Wiscon-sin’s 70-year-old minimum markup on gasoline unconstitutional, the law technically still is in effect.
The February ruling by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa was stayed by the U.S. Appeals Court in Chicago in May after an appeal was filed by the Wisconsin Petroleum Marketers and Conven-ience Store Association.
The court hasn’t ruled on the appeal. Association president Matt Hauser said his organization is waiting for a court ruling on whether it will be allowed to intervene in the case after the state attorney general decided not to appeal.
Despite the stay, the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has not resumed enforcing the minimum markup law, said Jeremy McPherson, director of DATCP’s business trade practices bureau.
“We’re going to wait and see what happens with the appellate court ruling,” he said.
But the department announced in March it will continue to enforce the other parts of the 1939 Unfair Sales Act, which prohibits gasoline dealers and other retailers from selling products below cost.
The minimum markup part of the law bars sales of gasoline at less than a 9.18 percent markup over the average posted wholesale price. Opponents of the law say it hurts consumers by keeping gas prices high, while supporters say it protects family-owned gas stations from predatory pricing by larger competitors.
The law’s uncertain status apparently hasn’t generated a flurry of price slashing.
“We’ve received a handful of complaints, but we have not concluded any investigation or taken any action since the (February) ruling,” McPherson said.
Ed Francois of Francois Oil Co. in Belleville, which operates 17 stations and convenience stores in southern Wisconsin, said he’s noticed little change in gasoline pricing prompted by the court rulings.
“We think the marketplace is working very well right now,” he said, adding that gasoline prices have risen and fallen appropriately along with the price of crude oil.
Hauser noted the minimum markup law never prohibited pump price discounts or rebates provided by a third party such as the gas rebates offered by Roundy’s or per-gallon discounts for Kwik Trip credit card holders.
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