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Driver fuel price database to break cartel hold

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Driver fuel price database to break cartel hold
Photo: DPA

Germany will soon have its first real-time database for fuel prices, a cartel watchdog said on Thursday. Customers will be able to compare costs, allowing them to get the best deals on petrol and diesel.

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Over 14,000 German petrol stations will electronically transmit their prices for petrol and diesel in real-time. The prices will be listed in a database, set up by the Federal Cartel Office.

Companies like motoring association ADAC will have access to the database, while the public should be able to see to it via websites and apps.

Initially, 13,000 petrol stations will take part and if it is successful this will expand to 14,500 by December 1st, news agency Reuters reported.

For the Federal Cartel Office, it should make it easier to crack down on the five biggest fuel companies – as they currently have control over the market. Allowing people to access the cheapest petrol or diesel should, it said, encourage more competition.

Yet Green Party MP Bärbel Höhn pointed out that “real profits will have already been skimmed off by refineries before the sale at the petrol station.”

DPA/The Local/jcw

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