Why is petrol more expensive in Germany than most places in the EU?
The escalating war in Iran has pushed fuel prices higher across Europe, but Germany has felt it more sharply than most — petrol has risen by almost 5% in recent weeks, well above the EU average.
The contrast with neighbours is stark. France and Austria have seen increases of around 2%, Estonia 3.6%, Luxembourg 3.5%, while Slovakia and Hungary recorded rises of just 0.1%.
The European Commission, which publishes weekly data in its Oil Bulletin, has flagged the particularly steep increases in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland.
Dutch drivers are currently paying the highest petrol prices in Europe, averaging €2.17 per litre last week.
Germany is close behind at €2.08, with Finland also in the upper range — notable for expensive diesel as well as petrol.
The biggest difference comes down to national tax and duty structures.
Germany traditionally levies higher energy taxes on fossil fuels both for environmental reasons and to fund infrastructure, while also charging for CO2 consumption, which feeds into overall costs.
The result is that Germans automatically pay more when prices rise.
In many other European countries, VAT, oil and CO2 levies are structurally lower.
The recent spike has nonetheless struck the German government as disproportionate, and it has set up a coalition task force to examine what can be learned from EU partners.
Some countries have already acted. Croatia and Hungary have both introduced price caps at petrol stations.
In Croatia, prices initially rose by around four cents per litre, but the cap will limit further increases and fix prices at €1.50 per litre from 23 March.
In Hungary, petrol is capped at €1.51 and diesel at €1.59, though the measure applies only to residents, meaning tourists with foreign licence plates will pay more.
In Austria, a different price rule applies: petrol stations are only allowed to increase their prices once a day, at noon. On the other hand, reductions are possible at any time.
This makes the situation clearer and more transparent, but whether this really leads to lower petrol prices is debatable.
Economics Minister Katherina Reiche criticised fuel prices for rising quickly on the back of high raw material costs and then falling only slowly, saying the government wants to “break through this mechanism”.
She has proposed limiting petrol stations to one price increase per day.
Driving is part of daily life for most Germans when commuting, shopping and doing school runs — so pressure on the government to act has been growing.
A task force convened in response met on Monday under the chairmanship of Sepp Müller, who afterwards accused oil companies of “price gouging”.
The meeting produced sharp criticism of industry practices.
A new study cited by Handelsblatt found that oil companies regularly use crises to push prices up quickly, with Berlin economics professor Ferdinand Fichtner concluding that the latest price jump could not be explained by the rise in oil prices alone.
“Really high profits are being made here,” Fichtner told the paper.
The task force is now appealing to the Cartel Office to expand its powers, including the ability to act against prices it deems excessive.
“We will not allow ourselves to be fooled here,” Müller said.
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The task force meeting included the German heads of BP and Shell, alongside Federal Cartel Office president Andreas Mundt, industry association representatives, consumer groups and the ADAC.
The petroleum industry pushed back on the accusations.
Christian Küchen, managing director of the Fuels and Energy trade association, told Tagesschau that margins had not changed since the start of the Iran war, and criticised the planned tightening of antitrust laws.
Several industry bodies also warned against political intervention in petrol station pricing along the lines of the Austrian model — among them the Bundesverband Freier Tankstellen, the Association of Fuels and Energy and the Zentralverband des Tankstellengewerbes.
Their joint statement noted that more than half of the fuel price is made up of taxes and duties.
“If you want to reduce fuel prices permanently, you have to talk about government price components — not about interfering in competition,” it read, directing the blame squarely back at the federal government.
