The food and drug retail sector was on the up on Friday afternoon with supermarket stocks performing well in spite of the regulatory ruling that brings 'yo-yo pricing' to an end.
The
Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has been investigating food pricing display and promotional practices by some of the biggest retailers across the UK, and found that some prices were artificially inflated in an effort to make subsequent discounts look like a better deal.
In a statement, the OFT said: "
Prices should never be artificially manipulated so that future planned discounts are made more attractive (for example, actively establishing a higher price in order to advertise a later discount, where that later discount price is in fact just the normal selling price of the product)."
Retailers will also no longer be able to class a product as 'on discount' if it has been at a discount price for longer than its higher original selling price.
They are also not allowed to give reference to previous selling prices where they do not give a meaningful basis for comparison.
Furthermore, the OFT wants to bring an end to 'buy-one-get-one-free' offers that work out as or more expensive than if a customer was to pay for the items separately.
The major UK supermarkets, including
Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Aldi, the Co-op and Lidl, have agreed to adopt these measures.
"Shoppers should be able to trust that special offers and promotions really are bargains," said Clive Maxwell, the Chief Executive of the OFT.
"Prices and promotions need to be fair and meaningful so shoppers can make the right decisions. Nowhere is this more important than during regular shopping for groceries," he told the BBC.
"[This] provides supermarkets with a clear benchmark for how they should be operating so that their food and drink promotions reflect the spirit as well as the letter of the law."
Top performing sectors so far today
Automobiles & Parts 5,246.62 +1.58%
Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,171.82 +1.16%
Aerospace and Defence 3,938.08 +0.91%
Food & Drug Retailers 4,083.33 +0.91%
Industrial Engineering 7,934.76 +0.90%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Beverages 13,381.49 -0.78%
Fixed Line Telecommunications 2,716.31 -0.72%
Forestry & Paper 6,904.44 -0.54%
Industrial Transportation 2,385.02 -0.53%
Industrial Metals & Mining 2,467.69 -0.47%
BC