Fighting fairly

IT is now three years since the Competition Commission’s inquiry into supermarkets’ treatment of their suppliers led to proposals to create a new watchdog to look after the interests of farmers and small businesses. Before that, the inquiry itself lasted for two years and the complaints that supermarkets were abusing their position had rumbled on for many years before then.

In short, then, it is high time that action was taken to implement its recommendations and it is only natural for farmers to look to a government led by Conservatives – traditionally the party of the countryside – to act. The disappointment, therefore, at the news that the draft Bill to create a supermarket ombudsman will not now appear, as promised, before Easter, can only be imagined.

Supermarkets might well complain that the creation of a new layer of bureaucracy would only lead to increased costs and higher prices, but they have singularly failed to demonstrate why a watchdog is unnecessary.

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For the basic facts are that the Competition Commission voiced clear concerns about the lack of competition between supermarkets and the bullying of suppliers by big chains and the complaints from farmers of being forced to accept ever-dwindling margins because of supermarket tactics have not gone away.

The Government must act now, then, to quell the suspicion that it wants to kick these reforms quietly into the long grass and ensure that the draft Bill is published as soon as possible after Parliament’s Easter recess.

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