Fuels: from August 1, petrol stations will be required to display billboards for prices

From 1 August 2023, petrol stations will be obliged to display the average regional price (national on the motorway) alongside that charged in the plants. This is what can be read in the implementing decree of the fuel decree. The decree defines, pursuant to article 1, paragraph 2, of the decree-law n. 5/2023, “the modalities of the obligation to communicate the prices charged”. «Performers of the business of selling automotive fuel to the public, including those operating along the motorway network, display – reads the implementing decree viewed by the AGI – with adequate evidence a billboard showing the respective average prices, relating to the types of fuels available at your point of sale, ensuring that they are updated on a daily basis».

The merchants will have to display the average prices by 10:30 if the opening hours are before or at the same time as 8:30, «if the opening hours are after 8:30, the merchants must display the average prices within two hours after opening; in the event of opening 24 hours a day, exhibitors display the average prices by 10.30 am», it continues. The billboard showing the average prices must be displayed inside the refueling area. Average prices are shown in the following order from top to bottom: diesel, petrol, LPG, methane «with equal size».

Article 3 continues, the initial opening communication and the one «prior to or at least contextual to the application, of all variations, upwards or downwards, of the price charged with respect to the last communicated price and, in any case, with weekly frequency, even in the absence of price changes, within the eighth day of the last communication sent». The merchants notify the prices to the ministry «indicating each price with all the decimal digits actually applied and fulfill the obligation to communicate exclusively electronically by using the application available on the electronic service accessible, after authentication, at the internet address https ://carburanti.mise.gov.it, also following the supplementary instructions and indications published on the same website”.

In order to ensure the widest dissemination of information on fuel prices, «the prices communicated are published on Osservaprezzi carburanti». Once the price communications have been received, the ministry processes “the data and calculates the arithmetic average, on a regional and autonomous province basis, of the prices communicated by operators selling automotive fuel to the public in plants located outside the of the motorway network, as well as the arithmetic average, on a national basis, of those communicated by the operators operating along the motorway network, thus taking care of their publication on a daily basis, starting from 1 August 2023, by 08:30 in a specific section of the website”.