Office of Fair Trading found no evidence of wrongdoing in the petrol industry, but motoring groups voice discontent
Rising petrol prices will continue to be a headache for cash-strapped motorists after the consumer watchdog concluded there is no evidence of unfair marketing or trading between oil companies and retailers.
The announcement from the Office of Fair Trading will be a bitter blow to motoring groups who had expected the watchdog to announce a full-scale industry inquiry. Instead, announcing its conclusions from a four-month investigation, the OFT said it had found no evidence of wrongdoing.
The OFT said the market was working well and an increase in average petrol prices from 76p a litre in 2003 to 136p a litre in 2012 was caused largely by rising oil prices and duty.
"We are very, very disappointed the OFT has reached this conclusion," a spokesman for campaign group FairFuelUK said. "The only thing it is saying is that there needs to be more visible petrol and diesel prices on the motorway. This falls far short of the full investigation into the UK road fuel market we had hoped for."
Earlier this week, energy minister Baroness Verma added to speculation the OFT would push for a full-scale inquiry by suggesting UK motorists were being "ripped off" at the pump.
"Perhaps we should look – I was going to say at how we make it easier for consumers not to be ripped-off at the petrol pump, but I shall not – at how we can encourage retailers to pass down a drop in price if it comes through the crude oil route," she said, speaking in the House of Lords. "However, the OFT is looking at retail pricing and at how reductions in price are passed down. We hope to be able to respond once we have viewed the report."
According to website PetrolPrices.com the average price of unleaded petrol at the pump is now 133.62p a litre and 141.08p a litre for diesel. However, there are vast regional variations on this – one of the things campaigners were hoping the OFT would look more closely at.
One garage in London is charging 149.9p for unleaded petrol, according to PetrolPrices, while the cheapest garages are charging 127.9p. For diesel the highest price, charged by a garage in Invernessshire, is 158.9p a litre, while the lowest is 135.9p.
via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jan/30/oft-rules-out-petrol-prices-inquiry
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