Morocco fuel market showed no anticompetitive conduct, watchdog says

Morocco’s Competition Council said it found no anticompetitive conduct in the national fuel market during the period from March 16 to April 1, 2026, while again warning that distributors continue to revise prices on the same dates and by similar amounts, limiting the flexibility of pump price adjustments.

The council’s latest note covers diesel and gasoline price movements on international markets and how they were passed on to retail prices in Morocco.

The council said the market showed no evidence of anti competitive behavior, but noted that the alignment of operators around identical price revision dates and comparable changes “tends to limit the flexibility of tariff adjustments.”

It said this pattern can slow the transmission of international price swings and produce relatively uniform price movements across competing retailers.

The regulator said the practice partly reflects the former price control system, under which revisions traditionally took place on the 1st and 16th of each month. In a liberalized market, it said, keeping that schedule appears increasingly outdated and should evolve to better reflect each operator’s supply frequency, contract terms, stock levels and commercial strategy, while preserving market stability.

Over the full period from March 1 to April 1, the council found that diesel price transmission remained partial, with a total gap of minus 1.35 dirhams per liter, although pass through improved in the second half of the period. For gasoline, the council said retail price changes exceeded international movements over the two periods combined, with a total gap of plus 0.33 dirhams per liter.

The findings point to a continued asymmetry in how international price movements are passed on to Moroccan consumers depending on the product, even as the regulator stopped short of identifying collusion or other prohibited conduct.