Petrol price site is not accurate
Official comparison site is not up to date and will be overhauled by end of September, government says
AN OFFICIAL price comparison website that aims to help drivers find the cheapest petrol stations in their area has been found to be carrying inaccurate figures.
The government has said it is working to improve the site by the end of September after it emerged that some of the prices listed are several weeks out of date.
The site - prix-carburants.gouv.fr was launched in January 2007 to inform drivers and encourage better competition between rival petrol stations.
It is supposed to be updated automatically each day with the latest prices from 10,000 petrol stations, but some of them are not providing the data required.
A spokesman for consumer group UFC-Que Choisir told 20 Minutes: "It doesn't respond to drivers' needs. If it's not up to date, there's no point using it."
Consumer affairs minister Frederic Lefebvre has asked anti-fraud body DGCCRF to carry out more checks at petrol stations to ensure the price displayed online corresponds with that at the pump.
The group has visited 6,000 petrol stations since the start of the year and has issued warnings to 834 of them about out of date information - of whom 72 were fined.
Related stories:
Petrol prices on the increase again
No helping hand for fuel prices
