Fuels Decision Division Restructured

Current contents of the Federal Cartel Office

Fuels Decision Division restructured

02.04.2026

published on: 02.04.2026

The Bundeskartellamt has created the organisational framework necessary to ensure the efficient implementation of the fuel price package, which came into force today. Decision Division V (“Competition and Consumer Protection”) has been relieved of other responsibilities and given additional staff. As the new 13th Decision Division, it can now focus more closely on the mineral oil and fuel sector.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “To ensure that the new competition rules in the fuel sector can be applied as effectively as possible, we have restructured the responsible Decision Division, relieving it of some of its responsibilities and reinforcing it with additional staff. We are now ready to move forward with a strong focus on enforcement.”

Going forward, the 13th Decision Division will comprise three project teams: the Market Transparency Unit for Fuels, a team dealing with proceedings under Section 32f of the German Competition Act (GWB), and a team dealing with proceedings under the new Section 29a GWB.

The Market Transparency Unit for Fuels collects and monitors price data from around 15,000 petrol stations in Germany. Petrol stations are required to notify the Market Transparency Unit for Fuels of any price changes within five minutes. These data are made available to fuel apps, for example, and are also analysed internally. In future, this analysis will also cover compliance with the 12 noon rule, under which all petrol stations are permitted to increase their prices only once a day at 12 noon, while remaining free to reduce them as often as they choose. Any price increase at a different time will be automatically forwarded to the competent Länder authorities once they have been designated and the necessary technical prerequisites are in place. In the meantime, however, no potential infringement will go unnoticed. All data will be stored and transmitted as soon as possible.

In March 2025, the Bundeskartellamt initiated proceedings under Section 32f GWB to determine whether there is a significant and continuing malfunctioning of competition in the wholesale of fuels (see press release of 6 March 2025). The legislative amendment which came into force today may potentially shorten the duration of these proceedings. However, the Bundeskartellamt will only be able to move forward with the proceedings once the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court has decided on the appeals filed by the price information services Argus Media and S&P Global against the requests for information issued in May 2025.

The Division’s third project team will focus intensively on the application of the new Section 29a GWB. This provision stipulates that powerful fuel suppliers at the refinery or wholesale level must not charge prices that unreasonably exceed their costs. The proceedings are simplified by a reversal of the burden of proof, which requires companies to disclose their cost structures.

German version

• ### Beschlussabteilung für Kraftstoffe neu aufgestellt

01.04.2026

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