Following an ongoing analysis of supermarket loyalty pricing, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has suggested that it is “unlikely” that loyalty promotions mislead shoppers.
The review, which was opened on 30th January 2024, has seen CMA look at tens of thousands of loyalty price promotions. It considered whether there are pricing practices that indicate that the non-loyalty (or non-member) price may have been artificially inflated to make the loyalty price appear “misleadingly attractive”.
The Authority gathered information from grocery retailers that offer loyalty pricing across food products, analysing what happens to prices before, during and after a product goes onto a loyalty price promotion.
CMA said the results to date “suggest we are unlikely to identify widespread evidence of loyalty promotions that mislead shoppers in this way”.
CMA stated: “In our analysis we have seen examples of retailers alternating between ‘was/now’ promotions available to all shoppers and loyalty price promotions. This raises questions as to what the ‘regular’ price is for the product and therefore whether the claim saving for the ‘was/now’ promotion is genuine.”
CMA commissions shopper survey
A consumer survey has been commissioned to understand the impact of loyalty pricing on shopper purchasing, including how much people shop around and compare prices.
The survey will look at whether:
- Loyalty pricing is affecting shoppers’ engagement with supermarket loyalty schemes
- Shoppers’ trust that the price savings for members are genuine
- Shoppers have concerns about supermarkets’ use of their personal data
- Attitudes to loyalty pricing vary between different types of shoppers and if so how.
A report detailing the survey findings will be published in November 2024, and will also set out the CMA’s views on how retailers can stay “on the right side of consumer law” when offering loyalty price promotions.
