UK frozen food retailer Iceland Foods has said it is “fully supportive” of The Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) “principles” on special offers and promotions on food and drink products, despite having not yet signed up.
Eight of the UK’s major grocers, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and The Co-operative Group, have so far agreed to adopt guidelines drawn up by UK competition watchdog. Iceland Foods and Asda, however, are yet to sign up.
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The OFT said the principles will mean consumers can “rely” on promotions “being fair and meaningful”.
A spokesperson for Iceland Foods said: “Iceland fully supports the OFT principles, announced today, to bring clarity to special offers and promotions. At Iceland we are focused on giving our customers great value every day across our whole range, underlined by the round sum pricing which we pioneered for food in the UK.
“As a result we believe that both our value and the clarity of our pricing are already second to none, and we place much less emphasis on discounted special offers and promotions than is the industry norm.”
The OFT investigated supermarket prices amid concerns consumers could be confused. It said it had not found grocers had broken the law or had used “misleading” practices. However, the watchdog said there “appeared to be inconsistency in the way regulations were “interpreted and applied”.
The new principles include prices not being artificially inflated to make a discount more attractive, the OFT said. Retailers must also ensure claims such as “Bigger Pack, Better Value” were true.
