Deceptive supermarket promotions are in the firing line across eastern Europe and Greece, as governments look to protect farmers and consumers
This month, a European directive designed to regulate supermarket promotions and eliminate deceptive pricing practices is set to take effect in Greece, according to a report from Tovima.
The new rules form part of a wider European Code of Conduct and have already been adopted by most EU countries. The chief goal is to make price reductions more transparent across the retail sector.
According to the code, any price reduction must be compared to the lowest price the product was sold at in the past 30 days at the same store. In addition, quantity-based promotions like “buy one, get one free” are limited to a maximum of one-third of the year.
From 17 March, authorities are set to start intensive inspections to ensure compliance, with violations resulting in fines of up to €1.5mn.
Extra regulations are due to apply to multi-pack promotions, with such products required to be available for individual sale for direct price comparisons.
Governments in eastern Europe are also intent on curbing the power of the supermarkets in the EU. In Hungary, prime minister Viktor Orbán has targeted foreign supermarkets with levies, price caps and policies favouring local ownership.
Slovakia’s agriculture minister Richard Takáč, backed by Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia, has called on the European Commission to go further than the updates to the EU’s rules on unfair trading practices that it proposed in December, according to a report in Politico.
“First and foremost, there is a need to increase the protection of farmers, but also processors and food producers,” Takáč stated. He said it was “important to increase the protection of the final consumer against the abuse of the position by dominant entities”.
Governments across eastern Europe have in the past introduced measures to rein in the supermarkets’ power, including with taxes, price caps and demands to stock local produce, but these have frequently clashed with EU single market rules.
