Status: 03/29/2022 2:32 p.m
The government wants to be able to react better to high fuel prices despite falling oil prices and want to examine mineral oil companies more closely. The Federal Cartel Office should be given more rights for this, as a draft law shows.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck wants to give the Federal Cartel Office more rights to check high fuel prices. The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” reports that his ministry has submitted a corresponding draft for an amendment to the law against restraints of competition in the cabinet vote.
According to this, the market transparency office for fuels, which is based at the Cartel Office, should in future not only monitor the price development at the petrol stations, but also the refineries and wholesalers of fuels. According to the FAZ, there is talk of “extensive investigative powers” – the authority based in Bonn should be able to request information from all companies along the value chain and be able to view business documents and, if necessary, also order searches. If possible, the cabinet should initiate the changes before Easter.
Falling raw material prices should end up with the end consumer
“The goal is a clear and strengthened competition framework that ensures the functioning of the markets,” says the report in the introduction to the draft law. In addition, the draft also stipulates that the petrol stations not only have to report the price, as has been the case up to now, but also the quantities of fuel sold to the transparency agency.
This should ensure that falling raw material prices are passed on to the end consumer more quickly in the future. The traffic light factions had agreed on this last week.
Previously, there had been widespread resentment because fuel at the gas stations was hardly cheaper despite falling oil prices. The mineral oil companies were criticized for not passing on the oil price reductions sufficiently to their customers.