DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - Andreas Mundt, head of the Federal Cartel Office, considers the centralized recording of prices at e-car charging stations to be risky. "In the case of charging stations, I fear that centralized recording and publication of all prices could make it easier for providers to coordinate their prices," the President of the Federal Cartel Office told the Rheinische Post newspaper.
The situation is different for fuel prices: "We actually advise drivers with combustion engines to call up and compare fuel prices via the relevant apps. You can save a lot of money this way," said Mundt. The Federal Cartel Office has been continuously monitoring fuel prices at around 15,000 petrol stations in Germany via the Market Transparency Unit for Fuels since 2013 and makes the data available to various providers of comparison apps.
Mundt explains why he believes the price-fixing argument does not apply to fuels: "(...) the mineral oil companies had always closely monitored each other's prices at petrol stations even before the Market Transparency Unit was introduced and aligned their pricing accordingly." Only since the Cartel Office has been recording prices centrally have motorists also had the opportunity to compare prices./juc/DP/zb