Misleading pricing practices - Which? super-complaint

Which? investigations over successive years have repeatedly uncovered pricing practices in the grocery sector that inhibit consumers’ ability to choose the best deal for their needs. These practices are a problem in their own right, but cumulatively have an even greater impact. In April 2015 Which? submitted a super-complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on misleading and opaque pricing practices. The paper highlighted in particular:

• confusing and misleading special offers that make extensive use of price framing including reference pricing, volume offers and free offers;
• a lack of easily comparable prices because of the limitations of unit pricing; and
• reductions in pack sizes without any corresponding price change.

This paper also asked the CMA to examine the impact of price matching, whereby supermarkets compare their own prices with their competitors and, in some cases, offer to reimburse customers if the products they bought could have been bought elsewhere at a lower price.

This annex to the super-complaint on misleading price practices highlights findings from various Which? investigations into supermarket special offers which uncovered numerous offers that breached government guidelines and could have misled consumers.​​​​