The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said that supermarkets “could be in breach of consumer law” after conducting a three-month study that shows they are “misleading customers” with pricing promotions.
The industry, via the BRC, has admitted that control over pricing promotions does need updating, and Which? has announced that it also found “misleading and confusing pricing tactics”.
Nisha Arora from the CMA said: "We have found that, whilst supermarkets want to comply with the law and shoppers enjoy a wide range of choices, with an estimated 40% of grocery spending being on items on promotion, there are still areas of poor practice that could confuse or mislead shoppers."
Whilst investigating, the CMA found some of the misleading pricing included unit pricing, where items are marked per gramme or per litre and also “was/now” pricing where the item is compared to a previous price.
150,000 products have been investigated, 800 of which have misleading prices. The CMA are in talks with businesses and will be issuing fines where necessary.
A spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium responded: "We accept that the guidance on promotions needs updating, and the rules on unit pricing may need revision.
"But we have said consistently that this should be achieved through the ongoing review of the Pricing Practices Guide and the BIS Unit Pricing Working Group."
