Fuel Prices and Competition Law: The Bundeskartellamt Steps Up

This piece for Steptoe & Johnson‘s Antitrust blog by authors Robert Klotz & Lucía Rama dives into Germany’s rapid response to surging fuel prices following the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which triggered sharp increases in gasoline costs across Europe. The authors explain that the crisis has created a unique competition law scenario: an external geopolitical shock colliding with an already concentrated fuel market. In response, Germany enacted sweeping amendments to its competition law framework in record time, with the Bundeskartellamt immediately launching investigations into refinery pricing practices.

The article outlines the three core components of Germany’s new Fuel Measures Package. First, the legislation introduces Section 29a of the German Competition Act, creating a sector-specific price abuse regime targeting refinery and wholesale fuel suppliers accused of charging prices that excessively exceed their costs. Second, the law dramatically shifts the burden of proof onto companies, requiring them not only to justify pricing discrepancies but also to substantiate their own cost structures. Third, the legislation imposes the so-called “12 o’clock rule,” limiting gas stations to a single daily price increase while still permitting reductions throughout the day.

The authors note that the new regime borrows heavily from earlier German energy-sector competition rules designed for natural monopoly markets such as gas and electricity, but argue that applying similar concepts to globalized fuel markets presents major practical and legal difficulties. Refineries operate in a far more complex environment involving international commodity pricing, imports, hedging strategies, inventory accounting, and multi-product outputs like gasoline, diesel, and heating oil. Key concepts within the new law — including how refinery costs should be calculated and what constitutes a “customary” market price — remain largely undefined and may prove difficult for regulators to apply consistently.

The piece also highlights early signs that the measures may struggle to deliver immediate consumer relief. Fuel prices continued climbing even after the “12 o’clock rule” took effect, prompting the German government to introduce additional tax cuts and emergency economic relief measures shortly afterward. Meanwhile, the Bundeskartellamt has signaled it intends to aggressively pursue enforcement under its new powers, despite ongoing legal disputes over its investigatory authority and the absence of any established administrative practice or case law interpreting the newly enacted provisions.

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