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1 November 2007
SUPERMARKET ALCOHOL PRICING WITHIN COMPETITION LAW
UPFRONT, news, night online COMMENTS
The competition commission has found that deep discounting in the off trade sector is not anti-competitive, following its highly anticipated report on UK supermarkets. The news will come as a disappointment to on-trade operators who face pressure from authorities to maintain their corporate responsibilities and compete with off trade alcohol sales.
The Commission’s provisional 17-month investigation concluded that: “Below-cost selling by national retailers is not part of a predatory strategy… and is not having significant unintended effects.”
Evaluating the alleged ‘predatory’ pricing strategies of the top four supermarket chains commission chairman Peter Freeman found that large scale grocery retailers were not in violation of UK by pricing competition out of the drinks market. He also said that the competition commission’s findings were based on competition law rather than social issues.
“We have looked very hard to see if that is going on and the evidence is not there,” said Freeman. “We are competent to judge competition issues, but not social issues like alcohol. It’s not us, sorry.”
The report has also highlighted the level of below-cost selling of alcohol during last year’s World Cup, revealing that total discounted sales by Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda and Somerfield amounted to £38.6m.
MP John Grogan, who has campaigned on the issue of alcohol pricing, welcomed official findings that supermarkets sold alcohol below-cost.
“The political pressure for the government to act is growing,” said Grogan.
From: NIGHT Online
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Related Links:
www.competition-commission.org.uk
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