Drivers paid an extra 6p a litre for fuel after supermarkets kept prices high, damning report finds
3 July 2023, 16:42
Supermarkets were accused of profiteering at the expense of motorists last year in a damning report that says they made an extra 6p profit by keeping prices high.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recommended that the Government introduce legislation to create a 'pump watch' scheme to show local prices on sat navs and phone apps.
This would help drivers shop around more easily for the best prices locally and drive down prices overall.
The CMA found that the average supermarket fuel margins rose by 6p per litre between 2019 and 2022. An increase in margins on diesel across all fuel retailers cost drivers an extra 13p per litre during the first five months of this year alone.
Asda has also been fined £60,000 by the CMA for failing to provide relevant information in a timely manner, the regulator revealed.
It determined that competition has "weakened" as Asda and Morrisons decided to increase the amount of money it makes on fuel and Sainsbury's and Tesco have priced by comparison to local competitors rather than responding to cost movements in the market.
There was no evidence to suggest that there has been "cartel behaviour"and there are no plans to open an enforcement case against supermarkets, the regulator said.
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CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said: "Competition at the pump is not working as well as it should be and something needs to change swiftly to address this.
"Drivers buying fuel at supermarkets in 2022 have paid around 6p per litre more than they would have done otherwise due to the four major supermarkets increasing their margins.
"This will have had a greater impact on vulnerable people, particularly those in areas with less choice of fuel stations.'We need to reignite competition among fuel retailers."
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "It is absolutely not right that drivers aren't getting the right fair deal for fuel and have in some circumstances been overcharged by retailers."
An Asda spokesperson said: "Despite record inflation, we have carefully managed our business to ensure Asda was the cheapest traditional supermarket for both groceries and fuel throughout the period reviewed by the CMA and this position is unchanged.
"The penalty notices relate to two individual alleged technical breaches in the way information was shared with the CMA over a 12-month period, during which time a significant number of documents were shared with the CMA to aid their study and we engaged fulsomely with their enquiries."
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Energy Secretary Grant Shapps have previously been said to favour something like a scheme that already runs in Northern Ireland which has been credited with reducing the average price of filling up.
According to the RAC the average cost of filling up with petrol in the UK is 143.86p per litre, and diesel 145.54p.That is down from a peak of 191.43p for petrol and 199.07p for diesel in July last year as the war in Ukraine and other factors causes a surge in prices.
