Asda shamed over rip-off ‘multi-buy’ deals

Asda will be publicly shamed by the competition watchdog today, in a drive to stop misleading supermarket “multi-buy” offers. The Competition and Markets Authority is expected to announce that Asda must end rip-off deals in a report into supermarket pricing practices.

ASDA will be publicly shamed by competition watchdogs today as part of a major drive in which supermarkets’ misleading “multi-buy” deals could be permanently phased out.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is expected to reveal that it has forced Asda to end rip-off deals across its stores in a report into pricing practices at the biggest grocery stores.

In February, The Daily Telegraph reported that the CMA was planning to get tough on multi-buy deals after Which?, the consumer watchdog, made a “super complaint” about confusing prices last year.

Less than 24 hours after this, Sainsbury’s announced it would become the first supermarket to discontinue multibuy deals in store this summer, while other supermarkets including Morrisons and Tesco said they had started phasing them out.

Asda told this newspaper it was following suit by “prioritising low prices over promotions”, claiming it had removed 133 multi-buys in favour of everyday low prices in that week alone.

But today Asda is expected to be sin- gled out by the competition watchdog as the only major supermarket it has had to force to comply with its new standards.

This calls into question the chain’s claims last year about the effectiveness of its action to tackle the rip-off deals.

Traditionally Asda has been rated the cheapest of the major grocers, getting the lowest-priced rating by the

Grocer magazine for 18 years in a row across a basket of 33 products.

But consumers will now want to know if this has been achieved partially at their expense.

James Daley, director at Fairer Fi- nance, a consumer body, said: “Supermarkets which are not willing to abide by the rules should be publicly shamed as they are using confusing pricing for their own commercial gain.

“Once customers know supermarkets and trust that they offer good value it is easy to tempt them to spend more with misleading deals. The CMA must send out the message that no matter how big they are they are not above the law and the rules.”

In its report today, the CMA is expected to criticise Asda for multi-buy deals such as “buy-one-get-one free” offers, as well as “one-for-one” pricing, where items are on a discount for weeks from the “full price” which only existed for a few days.

The other major supermarkets have met its new standards voluntarily, the report is expected to find.

According to the Money Advice Service, a government-backed body, such multi-buy deals are “seducing” shoppers into spending an extra £1,000 a year. Asda was unavailable for comment.

The Daily Telegraph understands that the CMA has now secured a written commitment from Asda that it will change its pricing.