The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has called on the grocers to make accurate pricing a priority, after a review indicated some independent and smaller grocery retailers were failing to showcase accurate and clear prices.
The watchdog reviewed the way a range of grocery businesses showed their prices in-store to determine whether they were accurate, clear and matched the price shoppers paid at the till.
It looked at the price matching practices across 139 grocer retailers throughout England and Wales, including supermarket chains, symbol convenience stores, variety stores and independent food stores.
The department carried out on-site inspections and examined a sample of items. Across some stores, it found examples where retailers were displaying inaccurate pricing or didn’t show any prices for certain goods.
The majority of issues were identified across independent food stores and symbol convenience stores, with the most common types of problems being missing prices, conflicting prices, and pricing not being shown sufficiently close to the goods sold.
Additionally, there were errors with prices not being clearly legible, selling prices being obscured, and multibuy promotion labels not specifying the cost of products individually.
Overall, 60% of the issues led to shoppers being charged a higher price at the till.
The CMA and Trading Standards have published materials to help grocery businesses comply with the law as a result of the findings.
Additionally, the CMA is urging the relevant trade associations to share the compliance materials with their members.
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CMA interim executive director for consumer protection and markets George Lusty 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.”
In January, the CMA launched an investigation into loyalty pricing by supermarkets following accusations that the grocers were making savings appear better than they were.
The watchdog said the investigation would explore whether exclusive member pricing like Sainsbury’s Nectar Prices and Tesco’s Clubcard Prices were “misleading” shoppers.
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