the government wants to make the price increase more explicit

The government plans to require supermarkets to display “visible” and “readable” notices.

The war against “shrinkflation” (or “reduflation”) is stepping up a notch. The French government has submitted to Brussels a draft decree requiring supermarkets to further explain the situations in which the quantities of a product are reduced with an unchanged or even higher price. Objective: to avoid some unpleasant surprises for consumers, failing to be able to lower prices.

The Ministry of the Economy is working on a text, for the month of March, in order to “respond to consumers’ demand to be better informed in the event of ‘shrinkflation’ on certain products”, announced, Tuesday January 2, the office of the Minister Delegate in particular for Commerce, Olivia Grégoire. The order is submitted to Brussels to check compliance with a 2015 European directive on the transparency of technical rules.

Towards a “visible, readable” statement

The government plans to require supermarkets to include, on references which have been subject to a reduction in portions, the following statement: “for this product, the quantity sold increased from X to Y and its price at (specify the unit of measurement concerned) increased by …% or …EUR”, according to the draft decree that AFP consulted on Monday January 1. This notice must be placed “directly on the packaging or on a label attached to or placed near this product, in a visible, legible manner”further specifies the text.

The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, declared in October that he wanted a “arrangement” who forces “industrialists to make content reduction very visible”. “This has always existed, but this practice is increasing. It is unacceptable”he had estimated.

The CEO of the U system group returns the ball to the manufacturers

“It is not up to us to inform the consumer” cases of “shrinkflation”, “but to the industrialist”retorted Dominique Schelcher, CEO of the Système U group, Wednesday, on France Inter. It is “the industrialist who knows that his packaging has declined, that his recipe has possibly been called into question”he insisted.

Charging supermarkets with making these reports will be “complicated”added Dominique Schelcher. “It’s going to be a gas plant to organize this”he judged, anticipating “a waste of time”.

The Carrefour group had reported, in September, the products affected by “shrinkflation” maneuvers, but the 60 million consumers association had denounced “a communications operation”. “If it is they themselves who decide to do the labeling, we realize that they will label the brands’ products, and not their own”recalled Camille Dorloz, campaign manager at Foodwatch.