Profiteering fuel retailers have fleeced motorists by more than £1 billion this year, study finds 

Greedy fuel retailers have fleeced motorists by more than £1billion this year, according to a new study.

Between January and April, diesel drivers on average shelled out £57 more than they should have done if forecourts were playing fair, House of Commons Library research found.

It means motorists have collectively paid £1.1billion more at the pumps because of profiteering retailers, the analysis estimates.

This month a damning report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) watchdog said Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons together made around £900million by failing to pass on the falling wholesale cost of petrol and diesel to consumers.

But this figure, based on the big four supermarkets charging 6p a litre too much for fuel, related to 2022 and only included their forecourts.

Between January and April, diesel drivers on average shelled out £57 more than they should have done if forecourts were playing fair, House of Commons Library research found

The new Commons Library research covers all fuel retailers and is for the first four months of 2023, highlighting how forecourts have continued to cash in.

Because it only relates to diesel and not petrol, the true figure could be more than £1.1billion.

It is based on retailers increasing their margins by an average extra 13p a litre on diesel, a figure corroborated by the CMA.

When this is multiplied by the number of litres of the fuel sold nationally between January and April, the latest period data is available for, it amounts to a £1.1billion windfall.

The research was commissioned by the Liberal Democrats. The party’s transport spokesman, Wera Hobhouse, said: ‘Profiteering during a cost of living crisis is totally unacceptable. People should not be taken advantage of at the fuel pump.

‘The government should order retailers to pass on [wholesale] savings as soon as possible and cut prices immediately. It is high time that there is fair and transparent fuel pricing.’

Howard Cox, founder of the FairFuelUK campaign, added: ‘These figures likely barely scratch the opportunistic profiteering surface of rip-offs at the pumps that have been allowed by the Government to run rife for years.’

The AA’s fuel expert, Luke Bosdet, said: ‘The forecourts have been playing it dirty with diesel for many years.’

Ministers are planning to introduce a new law forcing fuel retailers to make up-to-date pricing information available to third parties.

It is hoped that the ‘pump watch’ proposals will create more competition and drive down pump prices overall.

This month a damning report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) watchdog said Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons together made around £900million by failing to pass on the falling wholesale cost of petrol and diesel to consumers

It will likely see new price comparison apps and websites launched for consumers.

The Government has also pledged to hand new powers to a public organisation to ‘closely monitor’ pump prices and ‘alert’ ministers if further intervention is needed.

As it stands the most well-known source for petrol price comparisons is the website PetrolPrices.com, which allows users to search within 20 miles.

However, it limits users to 20 searches per day and will only show the cheapest options so motorists cannot work out how much of a saving they could make. Prices are also not always shown in real-time.

According to the RAC, the average cost of filling up with petrol in the UK yesterday (THURS) was 143.42p a litre and 144.51p for diesel.

This is down from a peak of 191.43p for petrol and 199.07p for diesel in July last year as the war in Ukraine and other factors caused a record surge in prices.

While they are now lower there is concern that motorists are still not getting the best deal from retailers.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: ‘The price of wholesale diesel was lower than petrol for three months from the end of March, yet drivers at the pumps would have been none the wiser as retailers kept pump prices artificially high.

‘There’s no question diesel drivers have been very badly treated on the nation’s forecourts so far this year.’

He said that the motoring organisation believes that between January and April average retailer margins reached 25p a litre at some points as they were slow to pass wholesale savings on at the pumps.