Organic dispute enters second round: Price watchdog wants to examine margins in retail in more detail

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Although slightly more expensive, organic products are becoming increasingly popular. “Organic products will be in greater demand than ever at Coop in 2023,” the retailer said in a statement Wednesday. In the first nine months, sales increased by 9 percent compared to the previous year.

Price watchdog Stefan Meierhans (54) calls on this: He wants to shed light on the issue – especially when it comes to margins on organic products. It published an initial report on organic margins in January.

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However, it was said at the time that the report left important questions unanswered. Meierhans now wants to investigate these questions. The price watchdog told CH Media it would expand its investigation “to cover the food retail trade in general”.

Meierhans wants to shed light on the entire margin jungle. It’s a complicated subject. The purpose of further investigation is to determine whether price abuse is actually occurring.

“Collective market dominance of Coop and Migros”

Retailers will demand higher gross margins on organic products in four out of five cases, the January report said. According to Meierhans, this may be due to the “not very competitive environment” in Switzerland. Therefore, he suspects the “collective market dominance of Coop and Migros”.

Both Migros and Coop flatly denied the accusation. Migros says that higher margins cannot be achieved on labeled products: “Migros’ gross margin on organic products is on average close to that of conventional foods.” According to SonntagsBlick, Migros even wanted to prevent the report from being published in January.

Whether retailers want it or not: They have an obligation to provide information under the Price Monitoring Act. Companies with “market power” must provide all necessary information to the price watchdog. Retailers can only defend themselves through legal means. So they can take the dispute to federal court. (kae)

Source :Blick

Tim

I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.