One year of Market Transparency Unit for Fuels

The Bundeskartellamt takes positive stock one year after the launch of its Markt Transparency Unit for Fuels.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: "The Market Transparency Unit helps motorists to find the cheapest petrol station. Firstly, this helps the consumer to save money and secondly the comparison of fuel prices raises pressure on the oil companies to keep their prices competitive. We appeal to consumers to make good use of this tool to make it as effective as possible."

The Bundeskartellamt has conducted a first analysis of the data collected and summarized its findings in the report "One Year of Market Transparency Unit for Fuels (MTU Fuels): A First Stocktaking" (link to German version of the report). The most important conclusions from the report are:

• In a town a motorist can save on average up to 15 - 20 cent per litre if he drives to the cheapest petrol station in town and at the cheapest time of the day.
• If a motorist fills up his tank at any petrol station in a town at the cheapest time of the day, he can still save on average 7 – 10 cent per litre.
• The cheapest time to fill up with petrol is usually between 18 and 20 h. From 20 h onwards prices tend to rise significantly.
• However, prices do not increase at every petrol station from around 20 h onwards. Some petrol stations are known to keep their prices cheap until around 23 h. The report has revealed clearly identifiable pricing patterns: Aral and Shell frequently increase their prices between 20 h and 21 h. Esso and Total often follow suit from 21 h. From 23 h Jet also increases its prices.
• On average a petrol station significantly increases its prices at one point in the evening and carries out three to four reductions in smaller stages during the course of the following day.

• The striking pattern of price rises in the evenings and gradual price drops during the day can be witnessed to the same extent every day of the week. There are the same possibilities to buy cheap petrol on every day of the week.

The survey was based on prices of the fuel type Super E 5 in the cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Dresden during the period from 1 February 2014 to 30 April 2014.
The Market Transparency Unit for Fuels commenced its normal operation on 1 December 2013 following a three-month trial period. It reports the "real time" prices of fuel at around 14,500 petrol stations in Germany. The Market Transparency Unit does not itself offer price information to interested citizens but forwards information on price changes to consumer information services in a very short space of time. Motorists can call up the information from a number of information service providers, both online and via a mobile app.

Further information on the Market Transparency Unit and a list of the authorised consumer information services can be found on the homepage of the Bundeskartellamt.