The Monopolkommission welcomed the planned tightening of the Federal Cartel Office’s powers to tackle long‑term competitive distortions. Rupprecht Podszun, a competition specialist and commission member who spoke to the newspapers of the Funke media group, said the measure would be “very helpful in the long run”. He explained that the office already handles cartels, abuse of dominance and concentration reviews effectively, but that in highly concentrated sectors such as fuels, competition can be severely harmed even without a legal breach. “In such cases the Cartel Office should be able to act more straightforwardly” Podszun added.
As part of the government’s strategy to address rising fuel prices, it is now planned that gas stations will be allowed to change their prices only once a day, at noon. Podszun described this as a “new dynamic in price setting”. “It’s an experiment; we don’t yet know exactly what will happen” he said.
Another key reform will reverse the burden of proof in favour of the Federal Cartel Office. Companies whose prices rise sharply will have to prove that their price increases are substantively justified. Podszun cautioned that price monitoring will become very challenging in practice and that, in principle, authorities should refrain from engaging in a real “price control” regime.
