CMA calls on grocers to prioritise accurate pricing

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has called on grocers to prioritise accurate pricing following a review of the way in-store prices are displayed.

The review, which looked at the price marking practices of 139 grocery stores, assessed whether prices were “clear, accurate and matched the price people were charged at the till”, and the assessment included supermarket chains, symbol convenience stores, variety stores and independent food stores.

The CMA conducted on-site inspections and looked at a sample of products, and in some inspections, found examples where a retailer was “displaying inaccurate prices or failed to display prices at all for certain products”, a breach of consumer law.

According to the authority, these findings were backed up by similar work carried out by some regional and local Trading Standards (TS) across England and Wales, as well as previous work by the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS) and Northern Ireland Trading Standards (TSNI).

The majority of issues were found at independent food stores and symbol convenience stores, and the most common types of issues seen were missing prices, conflicting prices (where prices indicated on products conflicted with those shown on shelf edge labels) and prices not being displayed “sufficiently close to products”.

There were also issues with prices not being clearly legible, the selling price being obscured, and multibuy promotion labels that didn’t specify the price of the items individually.

The percentage of pricing errors found at each type of store were:

• Supermarkets: 4.2%
• Symbol convenience stores: 14.4%
• Variety stores: 5.6%
• Independent food stores: 7.8%

As a result of these findings, the CMA has published new compliance materials aimed at helping grocery retailers “understand what they need to do to comply with the law”. 

George Lusty, interim executive director for Consumer Protection and Markets at the CMA, said: “We know how frustrating it can be when you get to the till only to find the price doesn’t match what was advertised. While lots of grocery retailers – particularly supermarkets – are complying with pricing rules, this needs to consistently be the case across all types of stores.

“It’s important that shoppers can make well-informed choices based on accurate information, especially at a time when lots of people are looking to save money. That’s why we are reminding businesses of the importance of complying with consumer law.”