Supermarkets ‘mislead consumers’ over offers

Thursday, 20 November 2008

Supermarkets are breaking government guidelines and misleading consumers over special offers, according to a new report.

Magazine Which? said on a number of occasions stores were selling products at a cut price but did not adhere to fresh regulations introduced earlier this year.

It found Waitrose Blueberries were priced at £3.99 for two weeks before being advertised at "half price" for a six-week period.

The government says items marked for promotion should be priced at the higher price beforehand for at least 28 days.

Sainsbury's Gallo Cabernet Zinfandel and Chardonnay Sauvignon was £1 less than usual at £3.99 for five weeks, Which? said, yet returned to £4.99 for a week before being sold at the cheaper price again.

Which? head of services research Nikki Ratcliff said: "We all like a good deal, but ‘special offers' encourage us to spend more than we would otherwise and may make us buy food that we throw away.

"Supermarkets need to comply with the spirit of the new government guidelines and stop misleading consumers into thinking they're getting great deals when they're not."

But Sainsbury's responded and said it will do all it can to ensure instances such as this will not happen again.

It commented: "We always strive to meet the voluntary guidelines and would not at any time seek to mislead ... training will be repeated to avoid this happening in future."

Trading standards officer Martin Fisher said: "The results strongly suggest that there's plenty more work to be done in getting supermarkets to comply with the rules."

In September, Asda was told by the Advertising Standards Authority that it must withdraw a price comparison advert because the claims made in it were false.

Mars and McVitie's were also slammed by the watchdog over calorie claims.