The Competition and Markets Authority’s latest road fuel monitoring report draws a clear distinction between the recent jump in pump prices and retailer pricing behaviour. According to the regulator, the sharp rise following the Middle East crisis was driven mainly by wider input costs, especially higher oil prices, rather than a market-wide increase in retailer fuel margins. That matters because the CMA’s enhanced monitoring is intended to test whether movements at the pump reflect genuine cost pressures. In the regulator’s assessment, the spread between what retailers pay for fuel and what they charge motorists was broadly unchanged across the market in March, even as headline petrol and diesel prices moved up quickly.
The report records a rise of 26 pence per litre for petrol and 50 pence per litre for diesel between February and 20 April. Against that backdrop, average retail fuel margins moved from 10.3 pence per litre in February to 10.7 pence per litre in March, which the CMA said was close to, or in line with, the 2025 average of 10.7 pence per litre. The more important policy finding is that these margins are still above historic norms. So while the latest surge does not, on current evidence, look like a broad-based increase in retailer margins, the CMA is still signalling that competitive pressure in the road fuel retail market remains weaker than it should be.
The regulator also pointed to continued local variation in pump prices. In practical terms, the CMA said motorists may be able to save up to £9 on a tank of petrol or diesel by comparing nearby forecourts rather than accepting the first available price. For households, that is a direct cost-of-living issue. For businesses with vehicle fleets or regular road transport needs, it is an operating-cost issue as well. Persistent local price gaps suggest that price information remains uneven and that, in some areas, consumers are not yet seeing the degree of retail rivalry that would normally narrow those differences.
The March data is not uniform across the sector. The CMA said a minority of retailers recorded higher margins during the month and that it is now examining the reasons for those increases. The authority also made clear that it only received the relevant financial information from retailers at the end of April, so it is not yet able to give a settled explanation. The report also points to an earlier period of elevated margins before the current Middle East shock. Average margins stood at 12.7 pence per litre in December 2025 and January 2026, compared with 10.0 pence per litre in November 2025. That earlier movement is also under review and will matter in judging whether the market is still carrying persistent competition problems beyond short-term geopolitical pressures.
This is the context for Fuel Finder, the price transparency scheme recommended by the CMA and now introduced by the Government. The policy aim is straightforward: make near real-time fuel prices available to third-party apps and websites so motorists can compare local prices more easily and switch to cheaper forecourts. If that works at scale, the CMA expects competition to strengthen and retail margins to come under greater pressure. The authority said Fuel Finder is already being used by a range of third parties, but the success of the scheme will depend on whether retailers register fully and whether the pricing data supplied is complete, accurate and kept up to date.
The CMA has therefore moved Fuel Finder into enforcement. In the report, the authority said retailers that fail to register with the scheme, or do not submit accurate and timely pricing information, risk fines. As an initial step, warning letters have been sent to hundreds of forecourts that had not yet signed up. Sarah Cardell, the CMA’s chief executive, said the regulator will remain vigilant and expects any easing in oil and wholesale costs to be passed through promptly to motorists. For fuel retailers, the immediate message is that Fuel Finder is now a live compliance requirement rather than a voluntary transparency exercise.
The report’s methodology also gives the findings weight. The CMA said its margin analysis is based on confidential revenue, cost and volume data from some of the largest firms in the sector, covering roughly 40% of petrol stations across the UK. That gives the authority a stronger basis for judging margin movements than analysis based only on posted pump prices. Taken together, the latest report offers a measured conclusion. The recent rise in road fuel prices appears to have been cost-driven rather than the result of a market-wide widening of retailer margins in March. Even so, the CMA’s deeper concern has not gone away: margins remain historically high, local price variation remains substantial, and the next monthly report, including April data and the March outliers, will be important in showing whether tougher scrutiny and better price transparency are starting to change behaviour.