Supermarkets have been accused of “taking advantage” of their customers by charging them too much for fuel amidst the worst cost-of-living crisis in four decades.
Motoring group RAC said the UK’s biggest retailers are refusing to cut their forecourt prices to reflect lower wholesale costs.
It said supermarkets are currently enjoying margins of around 15p a litre on both petrol and diesel and called on them to “do the right thing by their customers” and cut the price of fuel by 5p a litre immediately.
Last week, supermarkets’ average price was 160.96p for unleaded petrol and 184.41p for diesel, only 2p lower than the UK average for unleaded and 3p lower for diesel, according to data from RAC Fuel Watch.
Supermarkets have traditionally charged lower fuel prices than the UK average because they sell large volumes.
By lowering their margin to 10p a litre on both fuels, supermarkets would be selling petrol for 152p and diesel for 173p, around 9p less for petrol and 11p less for diesel than they are currently charging, RAC noted.
It pointed out that since mid-October, wholesale prices have dropped by 13p for petrol and 22p for diesel, while prices charged by the biggest retailers have only reduced by 4.4p for petrol and 3p for diesel since the end of October.
“With many people struggling to put fuel in their cars it’s very sad to see the biggest fuel retailers taking advantage of their customers by charging far higher prices than they should be,” said RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams.
“This is unfortunately a perfect example of prices falling like a feather, the opposite of them rocketing up as soon as the wholesale price rises significantly.
“The supermarkets dominate UK fuel retailing, primarily because they have traditionally sold petrol and diesel at lower prices due to the large volumes they sell, but sadly there is now a remarkable lack of competition among the four main players which means prices are far higher than they should be.
“As it stands, there are smaller, independent forecourts offering more competitive prices than supermarkets so drivers should shop around. We urge the supermarkets to do the right thing by their customers and cut prices by at least 5p a litre immediately,” Williams said.