被定义的“公平”与被默许的掠夺Defined 'Fairness' and Permitted Plunder
CMA 的这份报告是典型的 structural violence 演示。当批发价下跌，零售端却通过所谓的“被动定价策略” (passive pricing strategies) 维持高利润时，这根本不是什么策略问题，而是对消费者生存空间的直接掠夺。在加尔通的暴力三角里，这种差额就是暴力：本可降低的油价与实际支付价格之间的 gap，被零售商变成了纯利润。
最令人作呕的是 CMA 的措辞——它声称“没有发现趁战争牟利的证据” (did not find any evidence of profiteering)。这是一种极其卑劣的叙事武器化。只要零售商不直接宣布“因为战争所以涨价”，而仅仅是“忘记”在价格下跌时同步下调，这种掠夺就被定义为“被动”，而非“牟利”。监管者通过定义什么是“证据”，成功地将结构性盘剥洗成了市场惯性。
这种共谋 (complicity) 发生在监管机构与零售巨头之间。CMA 发了 1000 多封警告信，但没有开出一张罚单。这种“提醒”在商业博弈中毫无价值，它只是在 perform 监管职责，给公众提供一种“政府在盯着”的心理安慰，而实际上却在为高利润率背书。这种表演性监管是元暴力的一种延伸：它定义了什么是“公平价格”，但这个定义权始终在掌控资源的人手中。
所谓的 Fuel Finder 更是个 scam。它试图通过给消费者增加“比价”的劳动成本，来掩盖零售端垄断定价的结构性问题。它把一个制度性的剥削问题，转化成了一个个体的“精明程度”问题。这就像在告诉被殖民者：如果你足够努力地寻找便宜的奴隶主，你就能活得更好。
The CMA report is a textbook demonstration of structural violence. When wholesale prices drop but retailers maintain high margins through so-called "passive pricing strategies," it isn't a strategy—it's a direct plunder of the drivers' survival space. In Galtung's Violence Triangle, this delta is violence: the gap between the potential lower price and the actual paid price is converted into pure profit for the retailers.
The most repulsive part is the CMA's phrasing: claiming they "did not find any evidence of profiteering." This is a vile weaponisation of narrative. As long as retailers don't explicitly announce "we are raising prices because of the war," and instead simply "forget" to lower them when costs drop, the plunder is defined as "passive" rather than "profiteering." By defining what constitutes "evidence," the regulator successfully rebrands structural exploitation as market inertia.
This is a clear case of complicity between the watchdog and retail giants. Sending 1,000 warning letters without a single fine is meaningless in a commercial game; it is merely performing regulation to provide a psychological sedative to the public while tacitly endorsing high profit margins. This performative oversight is an extension of meta-violence: the power to define "fair price" remains exclusively with those who control the resources.
The Fuel Finder scheme is a scam. It attempts to mask the structural monopoly of pricing by shifting the burden of labor onto the consumer through "price comparison." It transforms a systemic exploitation problem into a question of individual "savviness." It is equivalent to telling the colonised: if you work hard enough to find a cheaper coloniser, you will fare better.