“This gives providers room for price increases”

Touring Club Switzerland (TCS) has launched a petrol price radar. In this model, fuel prices are recorded regularly and proactively by TCS platform users.

Price watcher Stefan Meierhans (54) has long sought a platform to find the cheapest gas stations in the area. The Swiss Parliament should decide on this in the next few weeks. TCS has already started to move forward with its own solution. This should make the price watcher happy.

When asked by Blick, Meierhans first explained: “The TCS initiative demonstrates a need: we need effective competition.” However, the first doubts arise when it comes to the application: “I think the key to the success of such a platform is, on the one hand, the completeness and up-to-dateness of the data, and on the other hand, only the cheapest providers are displayed.” In this way, there will be a price race in order to stand out as the cheapest provider and even to be found by the consumer.

However, TCS provides an overview showing the price of almost every gas station in Switzerland. “There is a risk that cheap suppliers will learn more easily that they still have room for price increases because neighboring gas stations are more expensive,” Meierhans explains. This can backfire and lead to collusion, i.e. pushing prices up. Also, with a participatory platform like TCS provides, there is everything but the guarantee that real-time prices are available everywhere.

Experience with custom solutions currently available shows that data is often incomplete or out of date. “So they can’t have any positive effects,” Meierhans says.

Low price guaranteed solution would be better

Based on the experience with government solutions in Germany and Austria, Meierhans actually wants one for Switzerland as well: “Increased competition in Germany has led to lower prices. German margins, which were already low, fell another 13 percent.” According to Meierhans, there were also positive effects in Austria. For example, fuel prices are determined faster than crude oil prices due to increased competition among fuel retailers: “Especially because Austria has a low price guarantee: only the lowest prices are published.”

In Switzerland, gasoline price margins are currently still significantly higher than in Germany or Austria. That’s why Meierhans sees real potential for a noticeable impact on prices in a petrol price comparison platform. According to him, the challenge of relying on voluntary participation could be avoided with a government solution where gas station operators would have to disclose their data. However, according to Meierhans, there is resistance from the industry.