Date published: 2008/02/15
The BBC says:
Suppliers will get better protection in their dealings with big supermarkets to ensure fair competition.
An ombudsman will be appointed to resolve any disputes between retailers and their food suppliers, the Competition Commission recommends.
They will have the power to award compensation and will uphold a stronger supermarket code of practice (SCOP).
Proposed changes to the planning law could also give shoppers a wider choice of supermarkets in their local areas.
The proposals come after a two-year investigation into the UK's supermarket sector, which is dominated by four major chains - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, and Morrisons.
...
Local governments are recommended to implement a 'competition test' when deciding whether to give planning permission for new large supermarkets.There is also a proposed five-year time limit on the exclusivity agreements between supermarkets and local authorities that prevent rivals setting up shop nearby.
However, the plans do not require supermarkets to sell land or stores.
The proposal to create an ombudsman "to resolve any disputes between retailers and their food suppliers" sounds like a reasonable enough idea but the question is will it work in practise. The ombudsman is almost certainly going to be a member of the academic middle class (pretty much all such quango appointments are) and so will almost certainly be biased against the supermarkets in attitude and intent. On the other hand, the ombudsman may not have much actual power. And many farmers might well decide to keep quiet rather than risk being labelled trouble makers, and so blacklisted by all the big supermarkets.
And the idea of using a "'competition test' when deciding whether to give planning permission for new large supermarkets" again sounds reasonable enough, only it will allow the academic middle class people who run the country to stop any supermarket from ever having more than one store in an area. For example, the academic middle class people who run Cambridge are trying to stop a Tesco planning application for a store on Mill Road. And if this rule were in place then the city would have this excuse to turn it down. Indeed, so far the city has failed to find any other plausible reason to turn it down, although of course the current favourite reason for turning anything down anywhere in the UK is that it will increase traffic in the area by some (in this case insignificant) amount, and that is the current tactic of the protestors, having failed to present any good arguments to date.
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