The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said the UK’s motorists were charged an additional £900m after supermarkets increased their margins on fuel sales.
We’ve reported extensively over the last 12 months how the greed of supermarkets was preventing fuel prices coming down despite wholesale costs falling and the CMA has further confirmed this in its damning findings.
The fact that reports wholesale savings weren’t being passed onto the consumer was the trigger for the CAM to investigate, and its boss, Sarah Cardell, told the BBC that a lack of genuine competition was allowing retailers to get away with it: "We've seen retail margins increase over the last few years. And that means that motorists are paying more at the pump than they would be if competition was working really well.”
The CMA has now called for a fuel finder scheme to help drivers find better live prices online and ministers have backed this, too.
The report’s main findings were;
- Morrisons' and Asda's targeted fuel margins for 2023 had doubled and tripled respectively since 2019
- Sainsbury's and Tesco had followed suit and raised their prices, suggesting competition had "weakened"
- Increased margins on diesel across all retailers had cost drivers an extra 13p per litre from January 2023 to the end of May 2023
The RAC's spokesman Simon Williams said; "[The extra costs are] nothing short of astounding in a cost-of-living crisis and confirms what we've been saying for many years that supermarkets haven't been treating drivers fairly at the pumps."
Asda has also been fined £60,000 by the CMA for failing to provide information in a timely manner to the investigation while Morisons said its pricing was "extremely competitive" and while margins had increased they "remain very low" – and no, apparently they’re not joking.
The CMA is also investigating complaints that supermarkets are not passing on falling food prices to consumers and judging by the greed shown at the pumps I think we know the answer to that already.
