Britain’s grocers under fire for profiting from complaints

BRITAIN’S supermarkets have been overcharging suppliers and profiteering from customer complaints, according to the industry’s watchdog.

The allegation was just one of a number of potentially embarrassing claims yesterday made by the Grocery Code Adjudicator in its annual report.

In the report adjudicator Christine Tacon,

pictured, says that many suppliers to grocery retailers have complained about being overcharged for handling consumer complaints about products they supplied. One common complaint arises when a shopper returns a product to a store because it is either defective or has not lasted as long as its sell by date. Suppliers claim some grocers were billing them more than the cost of replacing the returned items. In effect the retailers were making a profit from the complaint.

Tacon said she has raised this issue with the retailers and that after reviewing their practices ‘some have changed their approaches as a result’. Without going into detail or naming which supermarkets were affected she said that one more change had to be implemented next month, and that the issue will now be closed.

‘I have proposed a best practice model for future complaints handling by retailers and I am pleased to say the retailers have supported my proposal,’ she said but warned: ‘If I receive further evidence on these issues it may lead to an investigation.’

The adjudicator was set up two years ago to ensure supermarkets treat their suppliers fairly.

It has also requested a contact on the boards of each grocer and held a meeting in March with the chairmen of the each retailer’s audit committee to ensure compliance with the code.

In February Tacon launched an investigation into practices at Tesco following the launch of an probe by the Serious Fraud Office into the way it has reported profit.