The Systèmes U and E.Leclerc supermarkets on Wednesday asked TotalEnergies to allow them to benefit from his pump discount of 20 cents when he supplies fuel to their service stations, denouncing “distortion of competition”.
The gas and oil giant applies from September 1 and until the end of October a discount of 20 centimes per liter on fuel in its own service stations but also supplies those of certain distributors, such as E.Leclerc and Systèmes U.
“Supplier and Competitor”
“Total is both our supplier and our competitor,” summarized Michel-Édouard Leclerc, Chairman of the Centers Strategic Committee. E.Leclerc, Wednesday on RTL. “He does not give us this rebate, I have also written to the president of Total to ask him to benefit from it”, he assured.
The day before, the general manager of Systèmes U, Dominique Schelcher, had made the same request on BFMTV. “Systèmes U and Leclerc, we buy the fuel together […] it’s the same fuel in our stations. Part of this fuel is delivered by Total. […] I ask Total to give us the same discount,” he said.
Benefitting people in rural areas
The two distributors highlight their presence in rural areas where TotalEnergies has few service stations, according to them, to justify this request.
“We are calling on Total this evening to make this even more attractive price, which goes beyond the government discount, even to people in rural areas,” said Mr. Schelcher.
“What is quite bizarre is that the competition authorities, the government, are very comfortable with this distortion of competition,” added Mr. Leclerc on Wednesday. Other gas station networks expressed concern regarding possible “customer evasion” following the TotalEnergies announcement.