Businesses that sell petrol and diesel must upload their price changes to a government database, allowing drivers and fleet operators to compare the cost of fuel offered by all petrol stations across the UK.
Under the Fuel Finder scheme, which launched today (2 February) garages and fuel stations must report their prices to the database within 30 minutes of setting them.
These prices will be displayed by third-party apps and websites, such as the AA app, My RAC, PetrolPrices, Waze, as well as in-car navigation systems and online map services.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recommended the scheme after publishing a number of reports into fuel prices on UK forecourts, which found weak competition between petrol stations and “persistently high” profit margins.
The CMA also found that retail prices tended to “rise like a rocket, but fall like a feather” in response to increases or decreases in the cost of crude oil.
The shared price database policy was announced by the Labour government in last year’s Budget.
The CMA has been tasked with the role of enforcing garages’ and fuel stations’ compliance with the Fuel Finder scheme.
The government watchdog will have the power to investigate whether the Fuel Finder requirements have been breached and to impose fines on those stations that transgress.
CMA said it is committed to taking enforcement action “to reinvigorate price competition in the UK road fuel market”.
The scheme works by providing open source pricing data, which can be used by established apps and price comparison websites that already map out and compare pump prices across the UK.
The key difference is that previously, sharing price data was voluntary - now all businesses that sell petrol and diesel have to upload their price changes to the government database.
The scheme urges drivers who spot a difference between prices advertised on comparison apps and the fuel forecourt to report the discrepancy on its Fuel Finder website.
Simon Williams, RAC head of policy, welcomed the scheme. He said: “We hope this is the start of the journey to cheaper fuel prices around the UK.
“The government has set up this scheme with the intention of increasing competition among retailers to give drivers better value at the pumps.
“As a growing number of the country’s 8,300 forecourts submit their prices on a daily basis, drivers will be able to easily find the cheapest forecourts near them using their favoured app or sat-nav.”
