The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has responded to speculation that it is contemplating banning supermarket buy-one-get-one-free-deals, clarifying that is has no such plans.
In a statement, it said that it is responding to a super-complaint from Which? made in April of last year, and is working with businesses to make sure that supermarket promotional practices can be clearly understood by shoppers and are not misleading.
Consumer group Which? had discovered that some multi-buy offers in British supermarkets did not represent real value, which is what motivated it to make the super-complaint in 2015.
More recently, the Money Advice Service, an initiative backed by the British government, revealed that the average shopper spends an £11.14 more a week than planned because of tempting ‘deals’, with 76 per cent admitting to regularly over-spending on their weekly grocery shop.
The CMA says it expects to provide more details of its engagement with retailers to tackle this issue in the coming weeks.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Jenny Whelan. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.