CMA expected to launch road fuels monitoring function within next few months

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is expected to implement its new road fuels monitoring function in either December this year or January 2024.

The PRA was advised of the move, subject to the legislative timetable, but has not been told the scope of the fuel monitoring. At present 14 companies provide fuel pricing data on a voluntary basis.

The next road fuel interim monitoring report from the CMA is expected in November. These reports, in their present format, include current fuel margins plus a historical benchmark but no mention of the rising costs that forecourt operators are facing, which would give a much better perspective on margins.

The PRA’s executive director Gordon Balmer has been pushing for costs to be included in the data to make sense of the figures and to deter ‘rip-off retailer’ headlines in the wider media.

“It’s encouraging to me that the CMA comes to the PRA for information,” says Balmer. “But we do need rising costs such as the increases in the National Living Wage, the energy price spikes, the increase in business rates and the cost of rising crime reflected in any data on margins.

“We continue to meet with the CMA and be open and transparent and we look forward to learning about the scope of the road fuels monitoring initiative before it goes live.”

The CMA was given statutory information gathering powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, which was given Royal Assent in May.

Meanwhile, Balmer told Forecourt Trader that he is writing to the Chancellor again, ahead of the budget, to ask her to retain the freeze on fuel duty. He says such a rise would be an inflationary attack on working people and counter-productive to growth.