The Monopolkommission welcomes the planned reinforcement of the Federal Cartel Office’s powers to tackle long‑standing competition distortions. Competition expert and commission member Rupprecht Podszun told the Funke‑Media newspapers that the measure is “very helpful, but it will have long‑term effects”. He added that the office currently handles cartels, abuses and merger reviews effectively, yet in highly concentrated sectors such as fuels the market can be badly harmed even without a clear legal violation. “In such cases the cartel office should be able to act more easily” Podszun explained.
Among the government’s initiatives to curb rising fuel costs is a rule that gas stations may raise their prices only once a day, at noon. “This introduces a new dynamic to price setting” Podszun observed. “It’s an experiment-we don’t yet know exactly what will happen”.
Furthermore, the burden of proof will be shifted in favor of the Federal Cartel Office. From now on, companies would have to demonstrate that any sharp price increases are substantively justified. “Price monitoring will become very difficult in practice” Podszun warned. “In principle, authorities should generally refrain from direct price control”.