Jennifer Money
Business Reporter, BBC News
Cooperative
The cooperative admitted to having illegally blocked more than 100 rival supermarkets of the opening branches near its stores.
The guard dog of the United Kingdom competition found that Co-OP had violated an order which limits the capacity of supermarkets to prevent neighboring land from being used by rival retailers.
The blocking of other grocers of the opening of competition between supermarkets and means that buyers have less choice when they try to obtain cheaper prices, said competition and markets (CMA).
A co-op spokesperson, said: “This is a question that we take very seriously, and we have taken all the necessary measures to ensure that this problem is solved and will not happen again.”
The cooperative admitted 107 violations of the 2010 Order of the Grocery Market Survey (controlled land). He has published a list of 107 locations.
The spokesperson for the cooperative added: “As a business that is committed to operating fairly, we recognize that it is extremely disappointing.”
The cooperative holds nearly 2,400 stores across the United Kingdom and has a market share of 5.2% in the UK supermarket industry of 190.9 billion Sterling pounds, according to the CMA.
The chain said that the number of violations represented “less than 2% of transactions” in its portfolio of goods, which includes its supermarkets and funeral directors.
Many of the largest supermarkets in the United Kingdom have also violated the order of land in recent years, but not to the extent that Coop was found in the last CMA action.
Tesco 23 violations in 2020Waitrose 7 violations in 2022, 18 violations of Sainsbury in 2023sda 14 violations in 2023 Morrisons 55 violations in 2023 Marks and Spencer 10 Breaches in 2023
Daniel Turnbull, Senior Director of CMA markets, said: “The restrictive agreements of our main retailers affect competition between supermarkets and impact buyers trying to obtain the best offers.”
The order prohibits new restrictive clauses which prohibit the land used for a supermarket.
It also prohibits the exclusivity provisions which prevent owners from allowing stores to compete with an existing supermarket over five years.
