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New laws to force greedy petrol stations to reveal rip-off prices revealed today
13 November 2023, 06:00 | Updated: 13 November 2023, 06:29
New laws to force greedy service stations and supermarkets to reveal if they are overcharging Brits will finally come forward today.
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Retailers could be fined tens of thousands of pounds if they refuse to hand over details of their prices to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Competition chiefs are already probing whether there is a postcode lottery across the UK.
Earlier this year they found some supermarkets had failed to pass on savings in oil prices to hard-up motorists.
Some were charging up to 6p per litre more for fuel - raking them in nearly £1billion a year extra in 2022.
Increased margins on diesel across all retailers cost drivers an extra 13ppl from January to the end of May this year, too.
Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco were singled out by the CMA for fleecing drivers.
Most pumps have started to reluctantly report their prices - but two firms including Shell and Motorway so far have not started theirs.
Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho told LBC: "During the pandemic, we saw some quite frankly shocking behaviour from some petrol court bosses, who were failing to pass on savings at the pump, ripping off drivers when people were already struggling with the cost of living.
"We will not stand for this bad behaviour.
"That's why I'm giving the Competition and Markets Authority new powers to force retailers, including supermarkets, to say how much they are charging customers.
"Those that fail to be transparent then could face serious financial penalites, including a fine of up to one per cent of worldwide turnover, or an ongoing fine of five per cent of daily turnover.
"Any retailer seen to be unfairly ramping up prices, will be held to account.
"Drivers deserve to know they are getting a fair deal at the fuel pumps and that is exactly what our plans will do."
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The new rules are expected to become law next year.
Ministers also hope that getting a grip on inflated petrol prices will help the battle against inflation.
New amendments to the Digital Markets Bill will be put forward in the House of Commons later today.
It will give the CMA powers to become responsible for monitoring road prices and reporting dodgy fims to the government.
Those that fail to comply could face a fixed fine from the watchdog of up to 1 per cent of their worldwide turnover or an ongoing fine of up to 5 per cent of daily turnover.
A report out last week probing prices found pump prices have gone up 11p per litre for petrol and 13p for diesel since May 2023.
The CMA warned that wholesale prices have reduced in the past two months but prices have not.
The average petrol price went up from 142.9ppl in May to 154ppl at the end of October.
For diesel it jumped from 147.9ppl to 161.8ppl.
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