The peak automotive body in Victoria - the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC) - has called for a better deal for Independent Service Stations to ensure motorists aren't slugged with hefty increases in petrol prices.
According to the VACC, a lack of Government intervention and weak competition laws have allowed the major grocery chains - Coles and Woolworths - to dominate the retail petrol market via their partners Caltex and Shell.
Associate Professor Frank Zumbo, a competition and consumer law expert at the University of New South Wales, said: 'Food prices in Australia have increased 41.3 per cent since the start of 2000, resulting in Australian families being forced to pay some of the fastest rising food prices in the developed world.'
'Coles and Woolworths control around 80 per cent of the grocery market and the lack of competition in this sector has allowed them to drive prices up. This trend is already happening in the retail fuel industry. And it could get worse for consumers and Independent Service Station owners once Woolworths enters the hardware sector as Woolworths would seek to link hardware purchases with their discount petrol dockets,' Professor Zumbo added.
VACC Executive Director, David Purchase said: 'The Independent Service Station owners do their best to compete with Coles and Woolworths and their fuel partners, Caltex and Shell. But it is an uphill battle and a fight they take on with one hand tied behind their back. Independent Service Station owners do not have access to the same wholesale prices as the supermarkets and they do not benefit from the same price discounts along the supply chain.'
According to the VACC, many Independent Service Stations trade at a loss and on their behalf, the Chamber is opposing predatory pricing, creeping acquisitions, restrictive leases and geographic price discrimination.
'The VACC believes it is in the public interest for Independent Service Station operators to be afforded an environment in which they can compete, otherwise consumers will end up paying higher fuel prices in the future,' Mr Purchase explained.
