Tuesday 19 February 2008

EU Assembly disagrees with the Competition Commission

Isn't that interesting? The Competition Commission's much hyped, and even more leaked, initial report on the grocery sector is put out into the public domain. Within days we have the European Union Assembly declaring that the main players in the Grocery sector are trading using methods that are non-competitive and of bullying farmers and other suppliers.

The assembly suggests that they are acting as 'gatekeepers' and controlling the access by the farmers and other suppliers to the half a billion consumers in Europe. I realise that the British Retail Consortium will be headlining in the morning rubbishing these claims, but as long as we have a weak competition investigation system with no real bite and a willingness to go beyond the access that has hitherto been accomplished, then their members will doubtless come out unscathed as usual.

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