Make pricing clearer to help shoppers, UK’s competition watchdog tells supermarkets

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) told supermarkets to make their pricing clearer to help shoppers find the best deals.

The competition watchdog said that unclear pricing could be hampering people's ability to compare products.

Sarah Cardell, the CEO of the competition watchdog, said: “With so many people struggling to feed their families, it’s vital that we do everything we can to make sure people find the best prices easily. We’ve found that not all retailers are displaying prices as clearly as they should. We’re writing to these retailers and warning them to make the necessary changes or risk facing enforcement action.”

Cardell said the law itself also needs to be tightened and called on the government to bring in necessary reforms.

“Evidence to date indicates high food price inflation has not been driven by weak retail competition, but competitive pressure is important as input prices fall,” the competition watchdog said in a statement.

“Next phase of CMA probe will examine competition and prices across the supply chain for the product categories identified. Rules on unit pricing should be tightened and retailers must comply to help shoppers compare prices easily,” it added.

According to the CMA, there are inconsistencies in product pricing. It said that in some instances the same type of product was priced per unit using different metrics, "making it hard for shoppers to compare prices on a like-for-like basis."

“For example, tea bags being priced per 100 grams for some products and others being unit priced per each tea bag,” it added.

The competition watchdog also raised concerns about unit pricing information being too small to read and some retailers not displaying unit prices for any products on promotion.