The French government has announced plans to allow retailers to sell fuel at a loss - even though French law currently prohibits doing so - with hopes that the measure will bring down prices at the pump for consumers.
The French government has announced plans to allow retailers to sell fuel at a loss - even though French law currently prohibits doing so - with hopes that the measure will bring down prices at the pump for consumers.
Hm I’m not convinced that’s a good idea or even one that works. It probably only drives those who can’t afford sell-at-loss prices into insolvency before prices rise again. Imo the high gas prices aren’t even the main problem, it’s the lack of affordable and reliable alternatives.
That’s exactly why it’s generally not allowed.
I also don’t really see what should motivate petrol companies to keep prices low after pricing out smaller competitors.
France is run by neoliberal dipshits now. They probably have decided that they want the small places out of business to “improve efficiency.” Also short-termist deregulation policies that leave everyone off worse in the long run is kinda their bag.
That’s the reason it’s banned in the first place.
Large companies would come into a market and sell their products for huge losses until the local competition went bankrupt. After the competition is gone, prices would go much higher than they were before.
This is probably just going to cause small individual retailers to go under while being taken over by larger groups. This is a bad move that isn’t even going to move prices in a meaningful way.