Regular operation of Market Transparency Unit for Fuels to start on 1 December 2013

Bonn, 29 November 2013: The regular operation of the Market Transparency Unit for Fuels will start on 1 December 2013. This marks the successful end of the three-month trial period: there is a constant data flow, further consumer information providers could be admitted to the system and the new offer of information has met with great interest by the motorists.

The Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Dr Philipp Rösler: "The trial operation of the Market Transparency Unit has been a success and I am very pleased that its regular operation will begin on 1 December. It will help us increase transparency on fuel prices and enable motorists to call up information on price differences at different petrol stations 'in real time'. For the first time everyone will be able to find information on the best current offer via his mobile app or the internet. This will increase competition. The Bundeskartellamt has done an excellent job in setting up the Market Transparency Unit. The swift collection and transmission of the data and the comfortable access to this information for motorists via the internet or their smartphone make the Market Transparency Unit a practical and consumer-friendly tool."

The President of the Bundeskartellamt, Andreas Mundt: "More than 14,000 petrol stations report their price changes to the Market Transparency Unit. This corresponds to a very wide market coverage. For the first time, motorists will have a comprehensive overview of current price differences at the petrol stations. The more customers use this tool, the greater the pressure will be on the large company groups to keep their prices competitive. The trial operation was already a great success. The technical operation is running smoothly and price changes are communicated to the consumer information providers within a few minutes. With the regular operation of the unit the Bundeskartellamt has succeeded in implementing this challenging project in a very short time."

The Market Transparency Unit does not itself offer price information to interested citizens but transmits information on price changes to consumer information providers in a very short space of time, thus enabling consumers to inform themselves. So far, motorists can call up the information from nine information service providers, both online and via a mobile app.

The Bundeskartellamt uses the Mobility Data Marketplace of the German Federal Highway Research Institute as a platform for the data transmission. This way the technically complex mechanism could be implemented in a resource efficient way.

Further information on the Market Transparency Unit and a list of the authorised consumer information services providing access to the price data can be found on the homepage of the Bundeskartellamt.