CMA Issues Warnings to Fuel Retailers Over Pricing Practices
Regulator sends 1,166 warning letters and 53 compliance notices as profit margins remain high despite falling wholesale costs.
Carla Rooney
The Competition and Markets Authority has intensified its scrutiny of fuel retailers.
Sarah Cardell declared pump prices exert "real pressure on drivers’ pockets." The CMA monitors retailers to prevent exploitation during the Middle East conflict.
The CMA assessed the war's impact on fuel prices and margins; prices reportedly remained significantly higher than pre-conflict levels, even as overall costs at fuel pumps fell in June.
some fuel retailers are prepared to pass on lower costs promptly and help their customers, but many more, including large numbers of supermarkets, are not.
A grace period for retailers to register with the Fuel Finder scheme ended in April. UK forecourts must now report price changes and fuel unavailability within 30 minutes.
Approximately 97% of petrol stations, representing about 99% of UK fuel sales, are now registered with the Fuel Finder scheme. Over 1,000 warning letters have reportedly been dispatched to retailers failing to provide prices to the service.
Some petrol stations still fail to pass on wholesale price changes quickly enough, the CMA claims. The regulator also claims that passive pricing strategies, employed by most retailers, contribute to maintaining high profit margins.
The CMA remains concerned about these passive pricing strategies. It cites a reported lack of effective competition among UK petrol stations that impacts fuel prices paid by drivers.
Despite these concerns, the CMA claims retailers did not actively alter their pricing strategies to exploit the crisis. The Fuel Finder scheme operates as a joint initiative between the Government and technology company VE3.
Edmund King stated that "some fuel retailers are prepared to pass on lower costs promptly and help their customers, but many more, including large numbers of supermarkets, are not."
rapidly and fully passed on to drivers.
Sarah Cardell affirmed the CMA will continue to monitor prices and margins closely, expecting any wholesale price reductions to be "rapidly and fully passed on to drivers." She also noted that Fuel Finder can assist drivers in saving money when they refuel.