Tank discount: Oil companies are filling their pockets – the Cartel Office is powerless
Created: 06/10/2022 11:19 am
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
A good week after its introduction, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the tank discount is primarily being used by the mineral oil companies.
The President of the Cartel Office must put consumers off.
Munich – One week after its introduction, the tank discount is obviously not reaching consumers.
On the contrary: fuel prices have now risen again.
The ADAC reported a value of 2.007 euros per liter on Thursday for Wednesday.
That's 1.5 cents more than the day before.
The price for E10 stagnated at 1.948 euros per liter.
Data analysis shows: Petroleum industry benefits from tank discount
Diesel is almost as expensive as it was before the tax cut on June 1, which was 16.7 cents per liter for the fuel.
The price of May 31 was only 3.7 cents short.
The development is going in the absolutely wrong direction, said an ADAC spokesman.
"Prices should go down, not up."
The petroleum industry in particular benefits from the tank discount – and not the consumer.
A data analysis by the news magazine
Spiegel
shows that the petroleum industry has been able to significantly expand its margins since the start of the tank discount.
According to the analysis, the adjusted difference between international crude oil prices and fuel prices in Germany has continued to rise – by an average of six cents per liter for diesel and Super E5.
Gas station association: "The mineral oil companies cash in"
The petrol station interest group (TIV) has also accused the oil companies of exploiting the current situation to boost profits.
"The petroleum companies are cashing in on a climate in the market that allows relatively high petrol prices," a spokesman for the association told the
Stuttgarter Zeitung
.
The spokesman explained that the fuel discount of 35 cents for petrol and 17 cents for diesel decided by the federal government was largely “capitalized” in advance by means of price increases.
And now it will be further increased: soon the average price for a liter of Super will be over two euros again "and in August we will end up at 2.10 or 2.20 euros".
Tank discount: Bundeskartellamt wants to keep an eye on prices
The traffic light coalition actually wanted to prevent this – with the help of the Federal Cartel Office.
Andreas Mundt, the authority's president, had announced that he would keep a close eye on the prices at the gas stations after the start of the tank discount.
The mineral oil companies would “really carry out their pricing policy under the magnifying glass of the Federal Cartel Office, at least at the moment,” Mundt said last week on
Deutschlandfunk
.
There is great transparency about the prices.
This has the advantage “that under certain circumstances we can also ask very uncomfortable questions”.
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Not much has happened so far - and the question remains as to what the Federal Cartel Office can do against the mineral oil companies at all.
Ifo President Clemens Fuest was amazed that politicians had announced that they would ensure that the relief from the tank discount would be passed on to drivers.
Companies still determine for themselves what prices they charge for their products and what they can assert on the market: "That's legitimate."
The Federal Cartel Office can intervene if it has concrete indications that companies are colluding to manipulate prices illegally.
The competition watchdogs, who have examined the industry more often, have never been able to prove this in the past.
Because there are only a few players who know each other very well and can react quickly to changes without being accused of collusion.
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Tank discount: Tax money to oil companies?
On the other hand, many consumers are angry that the tank discount does not reach them, but is swallowed up by the oil companies.
Experts warn of billions in losses at the expense of taxpayers: "The tank rebate primarily means a transfer of three billion euros in tax money from taxpayers to the pockets of the oil companies," writes Marcel Fratzscher, President of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin on Twitter.
Mundt explained in the ARD morning magazine that he could understand the attitude, but the cartel office could only act with the means at its disposal.
Those tools are information, transparency and the ability to "put companies in a really awkward position." At some point, companies would have to justify themselves, Mundt said.
(lma/dpa/AFP)
