“Shrinkflation” a marketing practice that consists of masking the inflation of products by reducing the quantities in similar packaging with an identical selling price. A legal practice, provided that the mention of the weight of the food is modified, but which can mislead consumers.
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The Minister Delegate for SMEs, Trade, Crafts and Tourism, Olivia Grégoire, announced Thursday, June 8, that she would seize “in September” the National Consumer Council so that it investigates ” special formats” and on “shrinkflation”. This neologism, derived from the English verb to shrink, which means to shrink, designates a marketing practice which consists in masking the inflation of products by reducing the quantities in a similar packaging with an identical selling price. A legal practice, provided that the mention of the weight of the food is modified, but which can mislead consumers.
This investigation will therefore “both on ‘shrinkflation’ but also on special products, special formats that can sometimes be found in certain shops” (such as ‘family sizes’…), specified Olivia Grégoire, during an issue of the magazine Further investigation, on France 2, entitled “Inflation: the low blows of the hypermarkets”.
The National Consumer Council should “Look very closely if today the regulatory responses, the fines, the sanctions are still sufficient or if it is necessary to strengthen the regulatory arsenal to sanction these practices which are unacceptable”she said.