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Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens, right) and Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) in a session of the Bundestag in early June
Photo: IMAGO/Frederic Kern / IMAGO/Future Image
Actually, the tank discount was an idea of the FDP as a reaction to the exploding energy prices.
But the tax deduction on petrol and diesel of up to 35 cents per liter fizzled out, obviously because the mineral oil companies did not pass the reduction on to customers.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) sees it that way.
"The first data sets by the Federal Cartel Office on the tank discount show that the gap between crude oil and gas station prices has increased sharply since the beginning of the month," the Vice Chancellor told SPIEGEL.
»Obviously, what many experts had warned about has happened: the mineral oil companies are reaping the profits, the consumers are not aware of the tax cut.«
The control of the mineral oil companies is the task of the Federal Ministry of Economics.
That is why Habeck is now reacting to the pressure that has been increasing from motorists, consumer associations and the opposition.
According to information from SPIEGEL, the Vice Chancellor intends to significantly tighten antitrust law in the coming weeks.
Habeck plans that the competition authorities may intervene structurally in markets, even without a violation of competition law being proven.
Up to now, this proof could hardly be provided by mineral oil companies, refineries and gas station operators, despite high fuel prices.
This is currently also tying the hands of the Federal Cartel Office to intervene against the companies.
The mineral oil companies do not need to coordinate.
This is what it says in a position paper from the Ministry of Economics, which is available to SPIEGEL.
It says: "There is a parallel behavior in the prices in the market." This means that the companies know the prices of their competitors at the gas stations because the market is very transparent.
»This means that even without an anti-trust agreement, the prices are very quickly adjusted to one another;
abuse of competition law is difficult to prove," said the ministers.
Destruction as »ultima ratio«
The change in antitrust law is intended to create "an abuse-independent disentanglement option", including the mineral oil and gas station market, according to the position paper from the ministry.
Disentanglement is another word for dismantling.
It can "only be used as a last resort," but it offers the chance "to break up established markets and thus ensure more competition to protect consumers," write Habeck's people.
In a further step, the Federal Cartel Office should skim off the profits generated by the oligopoly market more quickly.
Theoretically, this was already possible, but it was also linked to high hurdles.
"A right that cannot be used is not in the interests of the inventor," Habeck told SPIEGEL.
»The consequences are borne by the consumers, who have to pay higher prices«.
This is how he explains the Cartel Office's expanded scope for action.
The skimmed amounts would go to the state treasury.
Habeck thus brings an alternative to the debate about a so-called excess profit tax into play.
Bremen Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) submitted a corresponding application to the Bundesrat on Friday.
The federal SPD and the Greens are also demanding a kind of war profits tax.
The FDP, however, is strictly against it.
The liberal Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner considers it hardly practicable because it would also siphon off profits such as those made by the pharmaceutical company Biontech with the corona vaccine.
Economics Minister Habeck has had an excess profit tax checked in his ministry.
In terms of content, he stands behind such an instrument, with which the profits, particularly in the energy sector, from the increased prices could be collected and passed on to the citizens as relief.
Politically, however, he and his confidants consider it hardly feasible.
With the tightening of antitrust law, he seems to have decided on a new offensive.
"Anyone who profits from anti-competitive behavior at the expense of consumers must return these profits," Habeck told SPIEGEL.
Therefore, important measures from the planned amendment to competition law are preferred.
Sharpening the swords of antitrust law
However, he brakes the hope for relief for the current situation.
"It is part of honesty that this change in the law cannot have a short-term effect." But it will help for the future.
"And it's already showing some market participants that the state doesn't simply accept it when the idea of fair competition is violated," he says.
In doing so, he issues an open warning to oil giants such as Shell, BP and Esso.
Obviously also in the hope that, for strategic reasons, they are currently changing their pricing at the pumps and lowering the prices.
The changes are not only planned for oil companies.
The antitrust swords will be sharpened and new ones created.
And that is wherever there are only a few companies in the market due to the market structure and this leads to excessive prices or poor quality for the customer, said the Green politician.
"The Cartel Office must be given more powers in order to be able to better protect consumers in the future," said Habeck.
A data analysis by SPIEGEL this week suggests that the petroleum industry has again significantly expanded its margins since the introduction of the tank discount on Wednesday last week.
The difference between international crude oil prices and the prices at German petrol pumps, adjusted for taxes and levies, has increased since the reporting date.
And on average by around six cents per liter - both for diesel and for Super E5.
Representatives of Habeck's coalition partner, the FDP, and from the opposition are now calling on Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) to intervene.
"Minister Habeck must now put pressure on and, together with the Federal Cartel Office, ensure that the relief takes effect," said the FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr of the "Bild" newspaper on Saturday.
The wrong incentive?
The deputy leader of the Union faction, Jens Spahn (CDU), also called on the Minister of Economics to act: “The tank discount, worth billions, seeps away and the traffic light is watching.
Ordering the oil multinationals to report is the least that Economics Minister Habeck can do.« Saxony-Anhalt’s Economics Minister Sven Schulze (CDU) made a similar statement: »Now Robert Habeck has to summon the oil multinationals to report.
The ripping off of citizens at the gas stations must not go on like this for a week.«
The tank discount is an idea of the FDP.
It was decided in a nightly coalition committee in March.
The SPD was able to push through relief for low-income people and climate money.
For the Green voters there was the controversial nine-euro ticket.
The reduced energy tax on petrol and diesel for three months costs taxpayers an estimated three billion euros.
Environmental groups and economic researchers criticize the fact that it is more well-off citizens with large, fuel-guzzling cars who benefit from this.
It also creates the wrong incentive to reduce fuel consumption less.
This would help to reduce dependence on Russian oil more quickly, and with it the profits of the Russian oil companies that President Vladimir Putin is using in his war of aggression against Ukraine.
