Petrol pump
Petrol station association complains market power of the mineral oil companies
The fuel prices fluctuate every minute, food is significantly more expensive than in the supermarket. Why is that? The petrol station interest association has a clear answer.
Frequent price fluctuations on the petrol pump and excessive prices in the petrol station shops: The petrol station interest association (TIV) sees both consumers and tenants in the disadvantage and calls for an end to the “anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-vulnerable escapades”. The Federal Government, the EU Commission and Cartel Office would have to be active, said Managing Director Jochen Wilhelm in Berlin.
According to its own statements, the association has almost 700 members who operate around 1,000 petrol stations – most of them tenants.
“The prices tumble several times a day”
“The fuel and shop business of the petrol stations have to be focused on politics,” it said. In these areas, the corporations mercilessly took advantage of their market power. “The prices tumble several times a day,” said Wilhelm, spoke of “confusion prices”. The TIV said that the petrol station prices had long since had nothing to do with the oil price on the world market, which is often almost constant for days.
An evaluation of a good 14,000 petrol stations in Germany by the comparison portal petrolpreis.de recently showed that more than 11,000 petrol stations reported prizes from 12 to May 18 to May 18, some of which were valid for less than 15 minutes. At 3,851 petrol stations, the portal even registered individual prices that were not even 5 minutes. The Tiv announced: “The individual petrol station tenant himself has no influence on the fuel price. The tenants looked out the window and wondered, like the drivers, about the price jumps of the mineral oil companies.”
Association sees “double conflict of competition”
The Bundeskartellamt had already announced in spring to examine possible competitive problems in German fuel wholesalers. The question is “whether there is a significant and permanent disturbance in the competition in fuel wholesalers”.
In the shop business, the Tiv sees “double competition distortion”, “because the corporations drove up the purchasing prices of the shop articles and earn them at the shop several times”. The tenants could not buy the products on the free market, but would be obliged by the large mineral oil companies to obtain them at excessive prices via given suppliers. This has nothing to do with free entrepreneurship – but the tenants still take the entrepreneurial risk.
The TIV recently submitted a lawsuit against the mineral oil company Shell, the core of which was “the questionable shopping conditions”. Shell obliges his tenants to obtain 90 percent of the shop products from their own daughter Carissa. However, purchasing prices are between 70 and 110 percent higher than market.
A Shell spokeswoman described the allegation on request as incomprehensible. “In particular, it is unclear the database of the allegation. In the case of any comparisons, it must also be taken into account which services, e.g. complex logistics and small -scale goods management, are obtained for the paid fee.”
The sale of food and Co. is becoming increasingly important for the petrol stations. “Music plays in the shop,” said Wilhelm. Around 60 percent of the gross profit of the tenants of large mineral oil companies would be achieved via the products sold there. “Already today and in the future even more is about a” shop with a gas station “and no longer about a” petrol station with shop “”, it said from the tiv.
dpa
Source: Stern
