Despite the tank discount, high prices: Habeck wants to take action on antitrust law - even the break-up of the group is possible

Created: 06/12/2022, 09:28

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection: Robert Habeck (Greens) © Kay Nietfeld/dpa

The tank discount enforced by the FDP quickly disappeared.

According to ADAC, prices at gas stations are rising again.

Economics Minister Habeck now wants to take action against the oil companies.

Berlin – Despite the tank discount, fuel prices in Germany are high.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck is obviously annoyed by this - and according to a report he now wants to have consequences: stricter antitrust laws.

As

reports, according to the plans, the state should be able to siphon off the profits of mineral oil companies without proof of market abuse and, if necessary, break up the companies.

The Green politician Habeck accuses the oil companies of not passing on the tax deduction on petrol and diesel from the 2022 relief package to consumers.

"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 risen sharply since the beginning of the month," Habeck told

.

Apparently, "what many experts had warned about has happened: the mineral oil companies are reaping the profits, the consumers are not noticing the tax cut".

High fuel prices in Germany: corporations observe gas station advertisements

According to the magazine, Habeck is planning to react to a significant tightening of antitrust law, which would enable the competition authorities to intervene structurally in markets - without having to prove a violation of competition law.

A position paper from the Ministry of Economics, from which

quotes, says: "There is a parallel behavior in terms of 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 agreement that violates antitrust law, the prices are very quickly adjusted to one another;

abuse of competition law is difficult to prove.”

The change in antitrust law is intended to create an opportunity to unbundle the mineral oil and gas station market, among other things.

In a further step, the Federal Cartel Office should be able to skim off the profits more quickly.