If we limit ourselves to the average gasoline prices in Spain, the measures imposed by the Government have eased the pockets of the Spanish people a little. That, at least, is what the portal says. dieselgasolina.com which collects the prices of all the gas stations in our country. However, the full photograph does not tell us this. There seem to be nuances.
And one of them has the low-cost gas stations at odds with the big oil companies.
A meeting with the CNMC. It is the information that brings Populi Voicewho assure that the National Association of Automatic Service Stations (AESAE) will meet with the CNMC to express their complaints about the policies of Repsol and Moeve when applying aggressive discounts on the purchase of fuel.
According to the newspaper, this association is in favor of filing a formal complaint because they understand that their discounts are only intended to harm their business. In Xataka We have contacted this association but at the time of writing this article we have not received a response.
What has happened? On March 20, 2026, The Government reduced VAT on fuel from 21% to 10%. This has caused an immediate drop in the price of about 30 cents on average, according to figures collected by the portal. dieselgasoline. All in all, both diesel and gasoline remain well above the prices we found on March 1, when the Iran War had just begun.
Then, the price of gasoline was 1.495 euros/liter and today it is 1.584 euros/liter. Diesel is the most affected fuel. From the 1,447 euros/liter registered at the beginning of the month, it is today at 1,783 euros/liter, even above 98 gasoline.
Repsol and Moeve tighten. In this context, Repsol and Moeve have taken the opportunity to launch aggressive discount campaigns that, of course, are not available to everyone since they rely on their loyalty cards and multi-energy programs to catch the consumer with more attractive prices.
Repsol relies on Waylet to put on the table discounts of up to 40 cents/liter. With the card, the discounts are 10 cents/liter but these are doubled if we have the electricity contracted with Repsol. And they reach 40 cents/liter if we have also taken out home or car insurance.
Moeve uses a very similar strategy. Using its alliance with Naturgythe company offers discounts of 20 cents/liter with each report if we have also contracted electricity or gas. And we will also have six cents/kWh refueled with each electric car recharge. These figures grow if we have also contracted other services and even the consumption of our home with plates. In that case, the discount reaches 60 cents/liter and 15 cents/kWh with each electric recharge.
Low cost companies complain. These discounts are not being seen well by low-cost companies. These types of companies He already pointed out to the Government in the early days of the Ukrainian War that subsidy of 20 cents/liter of the State put its business model at risk. But, also, they pointed out to the big oil companies as architects of a staging with its discounts that compromised its economic viability.
Therefore, according to Populi Voicethese companies will file a formal complaint with the CNMC against a pricing policy that they consider abusive. They are not the only ones, FACUA also denounces that service stations are absorbing state aid with the VAT reduction. Already in 2022 The CNMC verified that the discounts applied were quickly absorbed by the oil companies.
In Xataka We have contacted the Spanish Fuel Industry Association, who defend that their members, including Moeve and Repsol, “have always taken the side of consumers in times of crisis such as the years of Covid-19, the War in Ukraine or in this case.”
Same story (more or less). Those 2022 complaints seemed founded, as time has shown. It’s only been a few months since The CNMC fined more than 20 million euros in penalties to Repsol for applying discounts during fuel purchase subsidies four years ago.
According to Competition, the company launched a two-direction strategy. It offered extra discounts of five cents/liter to professionals and, at the same time, raised the sales price of its fuel to independent service stations. The objective was to narrow their profit margin while offering itself as a company with more attractive prices than the competition.
A question of margins. Big oil companies have an obvious advantage in times of crisis. As has been seen with the 2022 discounts and is seen right now, they are companies that can play with their profit margins with greater ease than low-cost companies. First because they have a dominant position with more establishments in the market, second because they buy a greater amount of fuel.
Low cost companies can offer more attractive prices in normal circumstances but they are more sensitive to crises if we are talking about an increase in the price of the product. This is because their purchases are smaller and more frequent, so they live adrift from the price of oil, reflecting the rise in price before large companies.
And, obviously, they suffer much more when these companies apply aggressive discounts since their profit margins are narrower but their room for maneuver is also smaller since, as we say, they cannot make large purchases that lower the price for a few days, no matter how few.
Photo | Repsol and Ballenoil
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