Suncor Energy Products Inc. has agreed to pay a $500,000 fine for price-fixing at some of the company's gas stations in Ontario.

The federal Competition Bureau said Friday that the Calgary-based energy giant has been fined for fixing the price of retail gasoline at service stations in Belleville, Ont., between May and November 2007.

"We are committed to pursuing those who engage in anti-competitive behaviour that harms Canadian businesses and consumers," Canada's competition commissioner, Melanie Aitken, said in a release.

The fine is related to an ongoing probe by the bureau into anti-competitive behaviour in the retail gasoline industry.

Earlier this month Canadian Tire, Pioneer and Mr. Gas stations in nearby Brockville and Kingston, Ont., pleaded guilty to anti-competitive behaviour surrounding gas prices. In that deal, the three companies agreed to pay fines totalling $2 million. The Competition Bureau said in the case that the "gas retailers or their representatives in these local markets phoned each other and agreed on the price they would charge customers for gasoline."

The federal agency's probe continues.

"Illegal agreements between competitors to fix prices deny consumers the benefits of competitive prices and choice," Aitken said.