Nearly 100 NSW service stations face fines over misleading petrol prices amid fuel shortage crackdown | New South Wales
Ninety-three service stations in New South Wales are facing fines for misrepresenting their prices amid Australia’s fuel crisis; but none face penalties for price gouging.
A two-week compliance blitz has seen inspectors visit about 75% – or just under 1,800 – of stations registered with fuel price app FuelCheck in NSW and issue 93 penalty breach notices, the state government said on Sunday.
Consequences for non-compliance include immediate fines of $1,100 or court penalties of up to $22,000 for individuals and $110,000 for corporations.
Under NSW’s fair trading standards, service stations are required to update their prices online in real time via FuelCheck to match the fuel checker. Most of the 93 violation notices were issued for price mismatch; 23 of these were sent to Sydney operators and the remaining 70 were sent to regional NSW.
The NSW government, which has provided $2.2 million in additional funding for FuelCheck, has urged the public to report fuel price issues, including exploitative pricing; however, Guardian Australia understands that none of the NSW infringement notices were issued for the purpose of price gouging.
The Labor government has rejected calls from the state opposition to require retailers to cap fuel prices every 24 hours, similar to systems in Victoria and Western Australia that allow retailers to set fuel prices for the next day by 2pm local time.
NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said last month the policy was “basically what already happens in terms of FuelCheck” but that the website does not require retailers to fix prices, only to report them accurately.
Fuel prices have fallen since the federal consumption tax was cut in half on Wednesday as part of emergency fuel measures taken by the Albanian government in response to the effects of the Middle East war.
An agreement reached by state and territory leaders on Thursday to pass increased GST revenue from fuel sales back to consumers has resulted in a reduction of about 32 cents per liter on gasoline or diesel.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which announced it would crack down on price gouging following the conflict in the Middle East, said it would “closely analyze price movements” and called on retailers to cut cuts as soon as possible.
On Thursday it also issued notices to businesses in South Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia demanding they justify “fuel surcharges” imposed on deliveries to remote areas.
Approximately 2,400 fuel stations in NSW are registered with FuelCheck as a requirement of state law. On Sunday, the WA government announced it was expanding its own FuelWatch program, which includes price-fixing, to require every retailer in the state to sign up and increasing fines for failure to comply with reporting requirements from $1,000 to $4,000.
