Supermarkets 'misled public over prices'

A consumer watchdog accused Asda and Sainsbury's yesterday of "illegally misleading" consumers over the pricing of certain products.
By The Newsroom
Published 29th Sep 2010, 00:48 BST
Updated 29th Sep 2010, 00:48 BST

Which? said its investigation into supermarket pricing "tricks" found customers could believe they were buying "great value" big packs which were worse value than smaller versions.

The watchdog said it was reporting three examples found at Asda and Sainsbury's to trading standards officials.

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The offers thought to have breached trading laws included a triple pack of Sainsbury's Naturally Sweet Sweetcorn carrying the label "Bigger Pack Better Value", when buying three individual tins was 4p cheaper.

A 2kg "Bigger Pack Better Value" bag of Sainsbury's spaghetti was 27p more expensive than buying two 1kg bags.

The third example was at Asda, which sold a 700g "Great Value" twin pack of Cathedral City cheese for 5.98 when two 400g packs were 22p cheaper.

A Which? survey of 1,005 people to coincide with the study found two thirds would be tempted to buy larger packs or multi-packs that carried claims of "great" or "better" value.

Related topics:ASDA