Symbol convenience stores have been found to “significantly” breach consumer law with pricing errors, according to an official investigation.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) reviewed the way grocery retailers display their prices in-store across 139 stores, including 55 symbol convenience stores, between November 2023 and February 2024 in England and Wales.

The inspection looked to assess the accuracy and transparency of prices in-store, and whether they matched the price people were charged at the till.

At 11 symbol convenience stores and five independent food stores, the CMA found large numbers of missing prices – with examples of entire shelves or sections of the store with no prices. Twenty-six symbol convenience stores showed no instances of missing price indications.

The percentage of pricing errors found at each type of store were:

• Symbol convenience stores: 14.4%
• Independent food stores: 7.8%
• Variety stores: 5.6%
• Supermarkets: 4.2%

Overall, 60% of the errors resulted in a higher price being charged at the till.

Compliance at the symbol convenience stores and the independent food stores ranged from very good at some stores, to very poor at others, with missing prices on entire shelves or sections of the store, conflicting prices where prices indicated on products conflicted with the shelf edge labels and prices not being displayed sufficiently close to products, all of which are a breach of consumer law.

George Lusty, interim executive director for Consumer Protection and Markets at the CMA, said: “We know how frustrating it can be when you get to the till only to find the price doesn’t match what was advertised. While lots of grocery retailers – particularly supermarkets – are complying with pricing rules, this needs to consistently be the case across all types of stores.

“It’s important that shoppers can make well-informed choices based on accurate information, especially at a time when lots of people are looking to save money. That’s why we are reminding businesses of the importance of complying with consumer law.”

The CMA reported that it appeared that some retailers are either not aware of their legal obligations or view compliance with the relevant consumer law as optional rather than mandatory.

The majority (77%) of supermarkets has either no errors (57%) or just a single error (20%). The CMA did not record any missing prices at 46 out of the 51 supermarkets inspected.

The investigation was prompted by similar action taken by the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS).

The CMA has taken action to strongly encourage trading standards to help shape future enforcement and compliance work and factor in reviewing prices when conducting visits on priority issues such as illicit vapes.

The CMA added it would also be writing to the symbol store group owners to ask them to distribute its materials to the stores that operate under their banner to help ensure compliance.

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