To prevent a station from increasing the price three times in the same day. Lower the price… it can be at any time.
A Germany is (also) trying to react to the escalation in the prices of fuels, directly related to the war in Iran.
The German Government has already presented a bill that aims to halt increases in pumps without resorting to direct subsidies.
The most visible measure: Gas stations can only increase prices once a day, at 12pm.
Contrary to what happens in Portugal, where changes occur on Mondays, there are stations in Germany that change the price up to three times a day.
From now on, the idea will be to limit the increase to just once a day, and with a scheduled time: 12 pm. You can download it at any time and as many times as you want.
The Executive wants approve quickly the proposal; and is inspired by the Austrian model, presented as a way of giving consumers more predictability and reducing the succession of increases throughout the day.
It’s for the driver to be sure that, on the trip between one gas station and another, the price does not change however, a Government source commented to the newspaper.
But the real impact of time limitation continues to be discussed among economists.
The Austrian experience is generally seen as a transparency measure that facilitates price comparisons and reduces intraday volatility, but there is no consensus on its ability to significantly lower the final price paid by motorists.
Some experts even admit unwanted effects, such as a higher starting price right at noon.
The proposal from the Ministry of Economy, led by Katherina Reiche (CDU), also includes a strengthening competition rules.
The German Competition Authority should now find it easier to take action against dominant companies in the fuel market whenever there is evidence of excessive prices.
In certain cases, it will be up to the companies themselves to demonstrate that the increases were justified by actually higher costs.
The objective is to respond to the so-called “rocket and feather” effect: Prices rise quickly when oil becomes more expensive, but fall slowly when costs ease.
Violations may be punished with fines of up to 100 thousand eurosand the new regime will be evaluated after one year.
