Which? finds numerous ‘deceptive deals’ at six big UK supermarket chains

Misleading pricing uncovered at Asda, Iceland, Morrisons, Ocado, Tesco and Waitrose, with only Sainsbury’s fully compliant with rules

(PA)

Asda, Iceland and Morrisons are among major UK supermarkets pushing “dodgy deals” that do the opposite of saving their customers money, according to an investigation by Which?.

Over the course of a year, the consumer organisation looked at more than 450 products on offer online at the three supermarkets, as well as at Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. It found multiple “suspicious offers” in all of them apart from Sainsbury’s.

Among the “misleading” discounts it discovered was an offer at Iceland to buy two packs of Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut for £4, which works out as £2 each. However, the pack price was just £1.49 a week earlier.

Morrisons promoted Cathedral City Mature Cheddar Cheese as “was £3.50 now £2” for a week in September, even though the product was available for £2 the month before.

Meanwhile, Asda labelled Wall’s Carte D’Or Strawberry Ice Cream “was £3.50 now £2”. But the 1l tub was sold at £2 for longer, with the so-called special offer running only for 12 weeks.

Following a Which? complaint in 2015, the government published new guidance to make sure retailers’ pricing practices comply with consumer law. The rules state that information presented to consumers must be fair, must not waste time or cause disappointment, and should not lead buyers to overspend.

“Four years on from our super-complaint on misleading pricing practices, many of the big supermarkets are clearly still in the wrong, with numerous examples of dodgy discounts and never-ending offers,” said Natalie Hitchins, head of home products and services at Which?.

“These retailers must stop tricking shoppers with deceptive deals and spurious special offers.”

Which? will report its findings to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and Ms Hitchins urged the CMA to intervene if necessary.

Only two of the supermarkets responded to Which? when presented with the findings. Iceland said it will review its promotional calendar, while Asda disagreed with the suggestion that its offers are misleading.

In its advice to consumers, Which? said: “It’s worth treating the discounts and multibuys that fill supermarket aisles with a degree of caution.

“While most of the deals we monitored did represent good value, we spotted 65 instances across the year of supermarkets using misleading discounts that didn’t represent the bargains they claimed.”