2023-12-29 13:33:32
Will consumers next year be better informed about the quantities contained in the packages they buy? The government wants more transparency on the “shrinkflation” practices to which many agri-food manufacturers are now accustomed.
What does it consist of? To reduce the volumes of a product in its package while maintaining the price, or even increasing it. A commercial maneuver that is certainly legal, but which arouses indignation among households, who have already been suffering for more than a year from strong price inflation on consumer products.
“It’s a scam, it’s scandalous,” Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, raged on September 7 at France Info. Basically, you get less and pay more. This practice is increasing, but we are not here to line the pockets of industrial giants. »
The executive has therefore just notified the European Commission of a draft decree which plans to require distributors (and not the manufacturers themselves) to add a warning to packages, when this practice is proven.
Carrefour already does it
“If the Commission makes no comments on the notified project, then publication in the Official Journal could take place at the end of March 2024,” the office of Olivia Grégoire, the Minister for Commerce, thus confirming information from BFM. Distributors themselves have regularly denounced this practice and some, like Carrefour, have even put in place clear displays to inform consumers of the changes that certain products could undergo. »
This warning could take the form of a label, for example, attached “directly to the packaging”, or “attached to or placed near the product”, on which the weight reduction will be clearly mentioned. The customer will thus be able to read, with characters “of the same size as that used to indicate the price of the product”, the fact that “the quantity sold has increased from so much to so much”, specifying – in percentages or in real value – the price increase.
In the event of non-compliance with this new regulation, distributors will be exposed to “an administrative fine the amount of which may reach 3,000 euros for a natural person and 15,000 euros for a legal entity”, specifies the draft decree. However, convenience stores and small local general food stores will not be affected.
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