Germany will now require fuel stations to limit gasoline and diesel price increases to once per day. The Bundesrat gave final approval to the legislative package on Friday, following the Bundestag's passage of the measure on Thursday. With the chamber of states' approval, the regulations can now enter into force.
The package of measures provides that fuel stations may only raise prices for gasoline and diesel at twelve noon, following the Austrian model, while price reductions remain permitted at any frequency. Violations carry fines of up to 100,000 euros. This is intended to reduce short-term price spikes at the pump.
Economic State Secretary Gitta Connemann (CDU) told the chamber of states that the legislative package will "give consumers more confidence in prices at the pump and strengthen competition." At the same time, Connemann warned against excessive expectations: "The package does not change the situation on global energy markets," she said. "But it can help to dampen the pass-through of prices to consumers."
The CDU politician ruled out more far-reaching measures such as a fuel discount, a gasoline price brake, or an excess profits tax. However, relief through the commuter allowance could be conceivable if prices do not fall again soon, Connemann said.
Resolutions in the chamber of states with more far-reaching requirements for lowering fuel prices failed to find majorities. The motion by the SPD state government of Saarland aimed at a statutory maximum price limit for fuel following the Luxembourg model. This was necessary "because our confidence in market economy reliability in terms of price formation by the mineral oil companies has been sustainably shaken," Saarland Minister-President Anke Rehlinger (SPD) said in the Bundestag. "That profiteering is also a tolerable instrument of price formation certainly finds no support here in Germany."
A joint motion by the SPD-governed states of Bremen, Hamburg, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern called for a fuel price cap and also the introduction of an excess profits tax to collect excessive revenues from mineral oil companies. The companies were exploiting the Iran war and their own market power "to line their pockets with inappropriate excess profits," said Bremen's Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte. "That is unacceptable and indecent." A fuel price brake was also necessary "to counteract a threatening inflationary spiral from the outset."
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Minister-President Manuela Schwesig (SPD) warned that what now happens is "what we know every year: namely that fuel prices are raised again just in time for the Easter holidays." This too could be prevented with a fuel price brake.
Saxony-Anhalt Infrastructure Minister Lydia Hüskens (FDP) criticized the direction of the federal law and instead called for reducing taxes on gasoline and diesel levied by the state. Such a step "spares the state the accusation of enriching itself from this situation."
North Rhine-Westphalia Economics Minister Mona Neubaur (Greens) criticized the law as insufficient: "It does not solve the actual problems we face." What is needed is a clear energy policy direction from the federal government toward the expansion of renewables and faster grid expansion. "What we have experienced in recent months is a back and forth, in which the goal honestly remains unclear," Neubaur said, addressing the federal government.
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