Competition will publish the gas stations that do not pass on the tax reduction to the customer

BarcelonaGas stations seeking to increase profits by taking advantage of state aid and tax breaks approved by the Spanish government to address the consequences of the war in Iran will be publicly exposed and identified on a public list so that consumers can make claims.

This Wednesday, the royal decree-law to address the economic consequences of the conflict in the Middle East comes into effect, and among its measures it includes greater control over the fuel market. In statements to the media this Wednesday, the Minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, highlighted that this advances consumer rights protection. "May the effort we all make go into people's pockets and not into the pockets of large energy companies, as has happened in so many crises in the past," he remarked to the press at the ministry's headquarters.

Promoted by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, among the main actions is to inform consumers and users if there are service stations that may be taking advantage of state protection aid for the war in Iran (such as the discount per liter of hydrocarbon) to increase their profits. This information will be provided through a public list for "anomalous behavior" which has been set up on the website of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) to give consumers and users the possibility to make claims.

For this reason, the CNMC itself will monitor the profit margins of all fuel stations. Until now, only operators with refining capacity in Spain were obliged to report data. With this regulatory modification, this limitation has been eliminated, and all wholesale operators are obliged to break down actual costs and selling prices until December 31, 2026, with non-compliance being established as a serious offense. In this way, the CNMC will be able to check which gas stations have anomalies, that is, at which stations they are raising fuel prices without justifying that this increase corresponds to an increase in actual costs. The names of gas stations where there are indications of anomalous behavior will be published on this public list.

Complaints channel

At the same time, the new mechanism imposes new obligations on gas stations to ensure this compliance. Firstly, they must provide a visible, accessible, and free complaint channel both at the establishment itself and on their website, and it must be available for up to three months after being removed from the public list. In addition, shared responsibility is introduced: if the price has been set by a third party, the gas station must provide the consumer with the identity and contact details of the wholesale distributor so that they can file an economic claim against the party responsible for setting the price.

The department led by Pablo Bustinduy has clarified that if the company rejects the consumer's claim, it must inform them of the available avenues to resolve the conflict without resorting to the courts, explain how to access them, and provide them with the details of the competent bodies so that they can exercise their rights.