Sepp Müller, vice‑chair of the CDU parliamentary group, has called for intervention by the competition authority because gasoline prices have risen sharply. He told the online news portal T‑Online that the cartel office must now threaten to use its “sharpest sword”. “What is happening now is maximally disproportionate” Müller said. “The gouging at the pumps has to stop”.
Under Paragraph 32f of the Act Against Restraints of Competition, in addition to fines the authority can carry out operational interventions in a company. Müller, together with Armand Zorn of the SPD, heads the task force of the black‑red coalition. The group was set up after the onset of the Iran war and is meant to monitor the war’s impact on the economy and energy prices.
Müller added that some oil conglomerates may have been hoping that a new fuel‑discount scheme would be reinstated, a measure that had previously cost taxpayers 3.3 billion euros. “We want to resolve this with the clear rules of free market economics” he said, inviting the competition authority and the oil companies to the next task‑force meeting.
