Olivia Grégoire, the minister delegate in charge of SMEs, trade, crafts and tourism, announced Thursday that she would seize the National Consumer Council “in September” so that it investigates “shrinkflation” and the “special formats”. “As of the next school year, (…) in September, I will seize the National Council of consumption (…) so that it establishes an in-depth investigation”, declared the minister during an issue of the magazine Additional investigation on France 2 entitled “Inflation: the low blows of the hypermarkets”.
This survey will focus “both on ‘shrinkflation’ but also on special products, special formats that can sometimes be found in certain shops” such as family formats, continued Olivia Grégoire. “Shrinkflation”, from the verb to shrink in English, is a marketing practice which consists in 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.
The National Consumer Council will have to “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”, he said. she asserted. The magazine broadcast Thursday evening by France 2 looks at “the little tricks of the food industry to discreetly increase their prices”, such as “changes in packaging or grammage”, but also the “endless arm wrestling” to which give rise to negotiations between “certain hypermarkets” and their suppliers, specifies the production.
A joint advisory body, the National Consumer Council brings together public authorities, representatives of approved consumer associations and professional organizations to discuss consumer issues. It issues opinions aimed at “enriching the thinking of public authorities” on the economic protection of consumers or the issues of ecological and digital transition.
