The majority of forecourt operators did not increase their margins in March amid the conflict in the Middle East, with the biggest driver of pump price increases being higher oil costs, the Competition & Markets Authority has found.
The watchdog’s investigation was triggered after pump prices for petrol and diesel rapidly increased by 26 and 50 pence per litre (ppl) respectively between February and 20 April.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves had warned forecourt retailers against exploiting the Middle East crisis to drive up fuel prices and asked the CMA to be “vigilant” over essential costs including road fuel and heating oil.
The watchdog, however, has found that fuel margins – which is the difference between the price retailers pay for fuel and the price they sell it at – on average remained “broadly unchanged” between February and March, at 10.3ppl and 10.7ppl respectively. They were also similar to the average margins throughout 2025.
It said the rapid increase in fuel prices caused by the Middle East crisis had been driven by wider cost pressures, in particular higher oil prices, rather than a general increase in fuel margins by retailers.
The CMA did observe some instances of individual retailer margins increasing from February to March, which it was now investigating. These findings will be published in its May report.
It also found a period of higher margins prior to the conflict in December 2025 and January 2026 at 12.7ppl compared with 10.0ppl in November 2025. The CMA is investigating what has driven this increase.
The watchdog noted that fuel margins remained at “historically high levels” reflecting ongoing concern about a lack of competitive pressure in the fuel retail market.
“The conflict in the Middle East has driven sharp increases in road fuel prices, putting real pressure on households and businesses across the UK,” said CMA CEO Sarah Cardell.
“The CMA’s job is to ensure these rises reflect genuine cost pressures, especially given our previous work showing competition among fuel retailers isn’t as strong as it should be.
“That’s why we’ve stepped up our monitoring. This scrutiny is working: on average, retailer fuel margins did not increase. We will remain vigilant to ensure any fall in costs is passed on quickly to motorists.
“Some individual retailers’ margins did rise in March. We are investigating why and will report further in May.”
The Petrol Retailers Association executive director Gordon Balmer said: “We welcome the report’s findings that there has not been a widespread issue of retailers earning higher margins since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East. Figures from the report show retail margins were on par with 2025 averages and the biggest driver of pump price has been the price of crude oil.”
Balmer added that higher fuel margins were a result of rising operating costs.
He said: “Whilst the report notes higher margins, it should be noted that retail margins have remained higher due to increases in operating costs such as business rates rising by 29% for the average forecourt, increases in national living wage, high energy costs and an increase in fuel theft and crime. All of these costs have to be factored into operating expenses, which are inevitably reflected at the pump for consumers.
“Since the start of the conflict the Treasury has pocketed extra revenue from VAT in fuel sales. We have urged the Chancellor to protect motorists by cancelling planned fuel duty increases and encourage her to introduce temporary measures to cut tax on fuel like Spain, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland and Australia.”
The CMA’s findings come as it told retailers earlier this month it would commence enforcement action, including fines, for businesses that fail to register with the government’s Fuel Finder scheme or to submit accurate and up-to-date pricing information. The scheme requires retailers to report fuel price changes within 30 minutes.
According to the AA, around 500 forecourts in the UK of the overall 8,350 are yet to register.
The AA added that average UK petrol pump prices, which peaked at 159.0p a litre, began to come down on 17 April. They reached 157.3p on 6 May before regaining 0.4p before last weekend.
Diesel prices at the pump had peaked at 192.4p on 16 April and were still falling on Friday after reaching an average of 188.3p.
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