Supermarket bosses face grilling on fuel prices from watchdog

theguardian.com:

The competition watchdog is to question supermarket bosses after finding evidence that retailers have increased fuel prices to unnecessarily high levels, squeezing consumers who are hit by the cost of living crisis.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that high pump prices could not be solely blamed on global factors, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It added it had found evidence that weakening competition among the supermarkets had pushed up prices for drivers at the pump.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 sent oil prices surging, pushing pump prices to record levels.

The CMA said on Monday that, although “global factors” including the war had contributed to an increase in prices, it was concerned retailers were taking larger margins than before the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

The CMA said average 2022 supermarket pump prices were about 5p a litre more expensive than they would have been had supermarkets maintained their average margins at 2019 levels.

The watchdog said that although supermarkets still tended to be the cheapest retail suppliers of fuel, it had seen internal documents indicating that at least one unnamed supermarket had significantly increased its margin targets and claimed that other supermarkets had spotted a change in behaviour and followed suit.

Sarah Cardell, the chief executive of the CMA, said: “The rising cost of living is putting people and businesses under sustained financial pressure. The CMA is determined to do what it can to ensure competition helps contain these pressures as much as possible.

“Although much of the pressure on pump prices is down to global factors including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we have found evidence that suggests weakening retail