Fuel
Cartel office: Motorists recharge their batteries
Every day the fuel prices describe a zigzag curve. This makes consumers more and more difficult to catch a cheap moment. Competition keepers are thinking about countermeasures.
The ever faster fluctuating fuel prices make it more difficult to recharge your batteries. This is the result of the Bundeskartellamt in its now examined investigation into the fuel market, refineries and wholesale.
Overall, the competitive keepers also see the situation rather critically: “The investigations have once again shown that the conditions for a functioning competition in the mineral oil area in Germany are difficult,” said Kartellamt President Andreas Mundt.
In the meantime, there are 18 price changes on average during the day at the petrol stations, according to the cartel office. It was only four to five ten years ago. This makes the market more non -transparent, and consumers could keep comparing the prices worse to recharge their batteries, says Mundt.
This also coincides with numbers for tank behavior in the investigation. According to this, only 43 percent of the tankers managed to get a price in the lower quarter in 2023. In 2015 it still managed 59.4 percent. However, the cartel office itself points out that the results for 2023 are only based on a rather small sample of petrol stations.
Regular complaints from consumers
In addition, the market transparency center for fuel located at the antitrust office regularly records complaints from consumers due to frequent price changes. “In some cases, consumers described the situation that they had compared the prices at short notice before their departure to the petrol station via price comparison services, but had already changed the prices when they arrive at the petrol station,” it says.
The cartel office proposes further investigations on the consequences of the frequent changes and has examined regulations in other countries such as Austria or parts of Australia. There, the number of price changes is limited to different ways.
However, there is no recommendation to introduce a similar system in Germany: studies on whether such systems in which, for example, the price may only be changed once a day, or that it can only be reduced once a day but can be reduced several times once a day currently no reliable assessment whether these systems would bring an advantage.
The ADAC also considers further examinations to be sensible. “The consumer can also use price changes. “It is good that the cartel office thinks about further steps here. However, possible interventions must not bring disadvantages for the tankers.”
Actually refineries and wholesale in focus
The results of the fuel prices are only a secondary aspect in the much more extensive sector examination, which had actually mainly examined refineries and wholesale. Based on the examination, there are indications that the market could be significantly disturbed, says Mundt. The cartel office will “check whether we open a procedure”.
ADAC expert Laberer hopes for quick action. “The competition in the German mineral oil market urgently needs to be improved. At the moment, the market power – especially on the way from the borehole to the refinery – is too a few large actors,” he says. “At the moment it seems that consumers pay more. The cartel office should quickly draw consequences here.”
The study by the antitrust office had started after the fuel prices had shown extreme developments in February 2022 after Russia’s raid.
dpa
Source: Stern
