Germany's ruling coalition parties, the CDU/CSU and SPD, are pointing the finger squarely at oil companies over the country's persistently high fuel prices. In future, these companies would have to "prove where the prices come from and how prices are made up," CDU Bundestag member Sepp Müller said on Monday in Berlin. The Federal Cartel Office would also be given additional powers to act against excessive prices at the expense of consumers. "We will not be taken for a ride here," Müller warned.
Müller is jointly leading a taskforce on high diesel and petrol prices together with SPD member of parliament Armand Zorn. At a meeting in the Bundestag on Monday, the oil companies had failed to provide satisfactory answers, Zorn said. They had "not managed to credibly explain how pricing works and above all how the differences compared to the rest of Europe can be explained."
In addition to the oil companies, consumer protection groups, representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, and the heads of the Federal Cartel Office and the Monopolies Commission also attended the taskforce meeting. According to Zorn and Müller, previous investigations had led to the conclusion "that the fuel market in Germany is not functioning well." Given the oil companies' failure to provide answers, the governing coalition parties had now agreed on further steps, Zorn said.
The German government has already decided that petrol station operators will in future only be allowed to raise fuel prices once a day, while price reductions remain unrestricted. Berlin is also planning to release parts of the state oil reserves. Both of these measures would now be implemented more quickly, the CDU/CSU and SPD assured.
The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) welcomed the announcements. "It is long overdue and right that oil companies must now justify their price increases," said DGB board member Stefan Körzell. "The competition authorities must take action — crisis profits at the expense of workers must no longer be allowed."
The SPD is also pushing for a price cap on fuel. "At the end of the day, the point is that the profit margins of the oil companies must be reduced," said Zorn. "There needs to be a cap to ensure that consumers are not fleeced and ripped off in crisis situations."
Federal Economy Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU), however, rejected this. State intervention in the gas or electricity market would "ultimately lead to higher prices," she said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels. Her party colleague Müller also distanced himself from the SPD's demand and likewise rejected cuts to fuel taxes and levies. The fundamental problem at present was the war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. "If there is 20 percent less supply, we will not be able to subsidise our way out of less supply," he said.
The Greens also oppose subsidies such as a fuel discount. The fuel discount introduced during the gas crisis in 2022 had been "a bad compromise" and had been introduced "at the insistence of the FDP," said MP Michael Kellner, who served as State Secretary under Federal Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), in an interview with WDR. Looking at the current situation, he called for a reduction in the electricity tax.
The Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv) echoed this view. "A genuine form of relief would be a reduction in the electricity tax for consumers," said vzbv chief Ramona Pop. This had been "sitting on the table as a central election promise for months and reaches people directly," she added.
Structurally, consumer protection groups see the solution primarily in reducing dependence on fossil fuels. The federal government must accelerate the expansion of renewable energies. "Solar and wind power, sustainable mobility and resilient supply chains make our country more crisis-resistant and protect people most reliably against price shocks," Pop said.
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