16th Mar 2006 11:06
Office of Fair Trading16 March 2006 53/06 16 March 2006 CLEARER PRICING INFORMATION FOR ONLINE SUPERMARKET SHOPPERS Supermarkets offering grocery shopping online have agreed to give customersbetter price information, following action by the OFT. Asda, Sainsbury, Tesco, Waitrose (see note 1) and Ocado (see note 2) have agreedto provide clearer information about their online pricing after the OFT receivedcomplaints from customers that the prices charged for groceries on delivery weredifferent from those advertised on the websites. The supermarkets (apart from Ocado) use guide prices on their websites to showthe prices of goods in-store on the day the order is placed. In most cases(apart from Ocado see note 2), the actual prices customers will pay will be thein-store prices on the day when goods are assembled for delivery. In-storeprices may change between dates of order and delivery. The OFT believed that their websites did not make it sufficiently clear that theprices shown were guide prices and what relation they had to the actual pricesthat would be charged. Asda, Sainsbury, Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado have now agreed to provide greatertransparency about their online shopping schemes, including: • upfront information about their guide price policies and how the onlineshopping process works • ensuring special offer prices quoted on-line are treated as firm pricesfor orders that are to be delivered in the offer period. The duration of offerswill be made clear • easy access to the terms and conditions. The OFT recommends that customers doing their supermarket shopping online checkprices at the point of delivery against guide prices quoted at the time ofordering. The supermarkets believe that customers are not contractually bounduntil delivery, and therefore are free to reject deliveries if for example theyare not satisfied with the prices to be charged. Ocado does not contract withcustomers in the same way, generally the prices consumers see on the websitewill be the ones they pay, so although there isn't a general right to rejectgoods delivered, consumers are given a cancellation right in respect ofnon-perishable items. John Fingleton, OFT Chief Executive, said: 'We welcome the supermarkets' improvements to the informationavailable to customers buying groceries online. Customers have a right to clearand transparent information upfront when making their buying decisions.' NOTES 1. The OFT's action relates to the online grocery shopping services providedby Asda (www.asda.co.uk), Sainsbury (www.sainsburytoyou.com), Tesco(www.tesco.com), Waitrose (www.waitrosedeliver.com) and Ocado (www.ocado.com) 2. Ocado operate a warehouse system specifically designed to facilitatetheir online grocery service. Ocado (www.ocado.com) sell goods at a fixed priceexcept for their catch-weight items, viz goods sold by weight. In those cases,the price per unit weight is fixed, but weights may not precisely match theorder. Ocado have also agreed to provide clearer information to customers aboutprices for catch-weight goods. 3. Supermarkets have clarified that the guide prices shown online are theactual prices for that day, in the store at which customers' goods will beassembled for delivery. MEDIA enquiries: 020 7211+ Julia Thompson 8901 Corinne Gladstone 8899 Roger Hislop 8133 Mike Ricketts 8904 Kate Wilcox 8900 [email protected] Out of hours: mobile: 07774 134814 messages: 020 7211 8961 Copies of press notices: Ext. 8993 http://www.oft.gov.uk PUBLIC enquiries: 0845 7224499 [email protected] OFT reports and consumer information leaflets are available free from: OFT, PO Box 366, Hayes UB3 1XB 0800 389 3158 [email protected] This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Sainsbury'sTesco