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Gas station in Rhineland-Palatinate: What did the customer get?
Photo: Thomas Frey / dpa
The petroleum industry "mostly" passed on the three-month tank discount last summer.
This is the result of an investigation by the Federal Cartel Office, on which the authority has now presented an interim report.
In this context, the Cartel Office referred to other studies that had come to the same conclusion.
The so-called tank discount was valid from June 1st to August 31st.
It was introduced for three months together with the 9-euro ticket to relieve consumers in view of high energy prices.
At that time, the energy tax for petrol was reduced by almost 30 cents per liter and for diesel by a good 14 cents per liter.
Whether and to what extent this reduction was passed on to consumers was discussed intensively.
The cartel guards also found no evidence that the high fuel prices are due to illegal price fixing by the major oil companies.
However: "Our investigation shows that this development cannot be attributed solely to cost increases," said the head of the Cartel Office, Andreas Mundt.
Mundt emphasized that most mineral oil companies had made very high profits with their refineries.
Nevertheless, according to the current legal situation, the Cartel Office can only intervene "if there is an initial suspicion of anti-competitive behavior".
High prices and high company profits are "not yet sufficient evidence" for this.
However, the authorities' investigations continued.
The Cartel Office had announced that it would closely monitor the development of petrol and diesel prices.
The competition watchdogs also use data from the market transparency office for fuels.
Consumers can also call up their data via corresponding apps.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) had spoken out in favor of giving the Cartel Office more powers in the fight against high fuel prices.
mike/Reuters
