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Press Release

Competition Commission tinkering will not work, says FSB

February 14 2008

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) today criticised the Competition Commission’s proposed remedies in its inquiry into the grocery market.

The UK’s biggest business organisation repeated its view that the remit for the inquiry is far too narrow and that consumers have been let down by the competition authorities. The FSB called for an independent regulator with a wide-ranging retail brief to ensure fair competition in all parts of the sector and reverse the trend of over 2,000 independent shops going out of business each year.

The FSB is not alone in thinking that more radical action is needed: over 400 MEPs have adopted a declaration calling for an investigation of and remedies to “the abuse of power by supermarkets operating in the European Union.”

Clive Davenport, FSB Trade & Industry Chairman, said:

“The Competition Commission has consistently failed to be an effective regulator to the retail industry. Three time-consuming, costly and ultimately meaningless inquiries in just seven years tell their own story.

“The idea for an ombudsman to oversee the relationship between supermarkets and suppliers is a reasonable one, but it does not go far enough. There are many more issues, such as below-cost selling and free parking for out-of-town shopping centres that the Competition Commission has failed to address properly.”

“There is a growing consensus of opinion across Europe that something must be done to protect independent retailers from the damaging effects of the unchecked expansion of supermarkets.

“In the UK it’s time for the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading to put out of their misery and for an independent regulator with real power and a wide-ranging retail brief to be set up.”



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Federation of Small Businesses

Federation of Small Businesses

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