Market transparency center for fuels

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As market transparency agency for fuels (MTS-K) in is Germany an organizational unit of the Federal Cartel Office referred that at gas stations largely market transparency should be prepared by collecting the current fuel prices and for display in the so-called. Spritpreis- Apps provides. The institution started regular operations at the end of 2013.

background

Back in May 2012, called for Monopolies Commission of the German Federal Government with the support of ADAC complete openness by transferring the current fuel prices to mobile phones and navigation devices in real time . The law necessary for such a regulation was passed by the German Bundestag on November 8, 2012 and implementation was announced from January 2013. In fact, at the end of March 2013 it became known that the start-up could be delayed until the end of 2013 due to the high complexity of the IT project, which is what happened then. A law was created to set up a market transparency office for wholesale electricity and gas. In the Competition Act one was § 47k created. Furthermore, an ordinance on the market transparency office for fuels (MTS-K-VO) was created, which came into force on March 29, 2013. In addition, a general ruling was issued on July 29, 2013 and a supplementary ruling on October 2, 2013. (→ chapter legal basis ). At the end of 2013, the Market Transparency Unit started regular operations.

implementation

The data can be accessed directly or via consumer portals and apps (also from third-party providers). Offers that existed until the market transparency office went into operation were based on information uploaded by consumers, so that the main aim was to improve reliability and create a basis of trust. With the start of the trial operation on September 12, 2013, more than 13,000 of around 14,500 filling stations in Germany were already connected to the system and sent their price data to the mobility data marketplace of the Federal Highway Research Institute ( BASt ) at short intervals initially passed on to four consumer portals.

At the end of January 2013, the BMWi submitted a draft statutory ordinance in which more details are regulated. The draft contained specific requirements on the reporting obligation of the mineral oil companies and operators of public filling stations, which should "electronically transmit every change in price data [...] to the market transparency office within five minutes". The data should then be made available free of charge to the “so-called consumer information services (e.g. ADAC, clever-tanken, manufacturers of navigation devices, providers of smartphone apps, operators of Internet sites)”. The rights of consumers have also been strengthened by giving them the opportunity to complain if “the prices quoted by the consumer information service do not match the actual prices at the petrol station”. The aforementioned consumer information services are also responsible for receiving the complaints, collecting the complaints and forwarding them to the Market Transparency Unit on a monthly basis. In extreme cases, this can also impose fines on petrol stations.

Regular operation

Regular operations began on December 1, 2013. The basis is the legal obligation to regularly announce prices to the Market Transparency Unit, which then consolidates this information and publishes it in a structured manner via appropriate communication channels - in this case primarily via the Internet . The price information made available in this way is primarily intended to prevent short-term price jumps and larger price differences between individual providers, but also to identify any existing pricing strategies of the providers. A similar regulation has existed for a long time in Austria , where an increase in prices is only permitted once a day at 12 noon.

Supported consumer portals on the Internet

When the trial operation began on September 12, 2013, the Federal Cartel Office initially approved four consumer information services that received the relevant data via the transparency agency's server. At the end of September 2013, a fifth and a sixth provider were added. Although the Market Transparency Unit had received well over a hundred applications for approval as a consumer information service by the end of September 2013, only 13 services had been approved by the Market Transparency Unit by mid-February 2014. In mid-May 2016, however, the number had already increased to 53. The Bundeskartellamt offers a constantly updated overview of the approved consumer information services on its website.

Open data

The data has been available as open data under a Creative Commons license since 2014 .

Legal basis

The legal basis of the market transparency office for fuels is provided by Section 47k GWB, entitled Market observation in the field of fuels . According to this, "operators of public filling stations that offer end-users fuel at self-determined prices [...] are obliged [...] to transmit these to the market transparency office for fuels in real time and differentiated according to the type of fuel they change". According to paragraph 3, this applies exclusively to petrol (types E5 and E10 ) and diesel fuels . In order to fulfill its tasks, the Market Transparency Unit was also granted powers in Section 47k (7) GWB in accordance with Section 59 GWB, ie companies that have been asked are generally obliged to provide information.

The Ordinance on the Market Transparency Unit for Fuels (MTS Fuel Ordinance) issued on March 22, 2013 on the basis of Section 47k (8) GWB lays down more detailed requirements for the reporting obligation of petrol station operators and the forwarding of price data by the market transparency unit for fuels to consumer information services.

Criticism of the transparency office

The study "Petrol Price Reporting Office and Petrol Station Marketing 2013", which was carried out at the beginning of 2013 on behalf of the University of St. Gallen , based on 9,000 surveyed petrol station operators, revealed that a low price for fuels alone is not the decisive factor for or against the use of a certain gas station. Rather, a multitude of different factors (bonus points, fuel cards, a connected car wash, products in the shop, etc.) are decisive for the final choice of the gas station. It was also feared that the activities of the transparency agency - contrary to what was politically intended - would not result in tough price competition, but on the contrary could lead to "a very adequate price level being leveled out" and that it could be easier for the petrol stations to " good margins ”. It is therefore to be feared that the transparency office will only be able to document the high price level, but not be able to influence it. A study by the management consultancy Simon, Kucher & Partners argues even more critically : The regulation benefits the corporations, the losers are the free petrol stations .

The consumer center NRW criticized that autogas (LPG) and natural gas (CNG) were not recorded. In addition, smaller filling stations would have the option of being exempted from reporting to the transparency office. Because of the five-minute period for price reports, the user cannot always assume that the supposedly cheapest price will still apply upon arrival at the petrol station.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jens Tartler: Fuel prices live on your smartphone. In: Financial Times Germany . May 15, 2012, archived from the original on May 16, 2012 ; Retrieved November 8, 2012 .
  2. ↑ a b c What the new Market Transparency Unit will bring to drivers. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . AFP / Reuters / dpa, November 8, 2012, accessed on November 8, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Market transparency office only at the end of the year? RP Online, March 28, 2013, accessed April 20, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Ordinance on the Market Transparency Unit for Fuels
  5. ↑ Legal basis of the Federal Cartel Office
  6. ↑ General order of the Federal Cartel Office
  7. ↑ Supplementary ruling by the Federal Cartel Office
  8. ↑ Market transparency center for fuels opens trial operation for consumers. Bundeskartellamt , September 12, 2013, archived from the original on 20130916 ; Retrieved September 12, 2013 .
  9. ↑ This enables drivers to compare fuel prices. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . FAZ.net with dpa-AFX, AFP, ancs, September 12, 2013, accessed on September 12, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Draft ordinance of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. ( PDF ; 79 kB) Ordinance on the Market Transparency Unit for Fuels (Ordinance on the Market Transparency Unit for Fuels - MTS Fuel Ordinance). Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology , January 21, 2013, archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; Retrieved January 22, 2013 .
  11. ↑ BMWi presents ordinance on the market transparency unit. Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology , January 21, 2013, accessed on January 22, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Market transparency center for fuels opens trial operation for consumers. Bundeskartellamt , November 29, 2013, archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; accessed on January 28, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Nicolai Birger: Wrong role model: There are also price wars at Austria's gas stations . The world . June 5, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  14. ↑ Market Transparency Unit for Fuels . Federal Cartel Office . Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  15. ↑ TANKSTOP issue 06/2013 (PDF; 9.2 MB) TANKSTOP, the eft magazine for petrol stations and medium-sized companies. P. 6. Archived from the original on February 23, 2014.
  16. ↑ Market Transparency Unit for Fuels , accessed on February 21, 2014
  17. ↑ Approved consumer information services. Federal Cartel Office , accessed on May 24, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Approved consumer information services. Federal Cartel Office , accessed on May 13, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Tanker King API. Retrieved November 29, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Ordinance on the Market Transparency Unit for Fuels (MTS Fuel Ordinance) v. March 22, 2013 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 595 , p. 3245 , p. 3304 )
  21. ↑ Gernot Kramper: The dubious use of the gasoline price app. In: Stern . May 7, 2013, accessed May 9, 2013 .
  22. ↑ study. Retrieved October 3, 2013.