Publications: Notes at the Margin

Petroleum Marketers and Price Reporting under Attack Again (February 24, 2025)

 

German voters selected a new government yesterday (February 23). The results were not available for this Notes at the Margin. However, the nation’s deteriorating economy will likely be the most important determinant of who wins. As The New York Times headline proclaimed last week, “Germany’s Economy Was Once the Envy of Europe. Not Anymore.”[i]

 

A report on oil price reporting issued by Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, the national competition regulatory agency, highlighted the country’s incoherent petroleum distribution system and its consequences for consumers. Naturally, the agency blamed outsiders—in this case, the price-reporting services Argus Media and S&P Global Platts—for the nation’s problems rather than holding to account an industry that remains structured to meet the needs of Chancellor Bismarck’s Germany in the nineteenth century rather than those of the country today.

 

High fuel prices in 2022 motivated the Cartel Office’s investigation. Its report threatens to revive regulatory attacks on price-reporting services despite a German oil industry that smacks of collusion and anticompetitive behavior. Similar high prices in California prompted investigations that led in 2024 to regulations aimed at requiring firms to hold minimum inventories. Both reactions warn of future government interference in the petroleum business by uniformed, disinterested policymakers.

 

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