The Association of Consumers and Users of Lanzarote (ACULANZA) has denounced in a press release that different supermarkets in Lanzarote are not applying competition law to set product prices.
"We are at the doors of Christmas and from ACULANZA we observe how prices are rising in the basic and essential shopping basket, even reaching an increase of up to 40% compared to three years ago, but even worse is the illegal practice of not applying the Competition Law, established as natural, among the different supermarkets on the island," they state.
This Law prohibits price-fixing agreements between competitors and it is the National Commission of Markets and Competition in Spain that is responsible for sanctioning these behaviors. However, on the island of Lanzarote, they say that "each food establishment is setting its prices in a non-independent manner from its competitor, without being investigated, let alone sanctioned. Likewise, it implies an increase in abusive speculation by food distribution companies to the detriment of families' primary needs, such as food".
From ACULANZA they have analyzed four basic products in different large supermarkets at a specific time as an example that "in Lanzarote prices are not set independently".
In the case of own-brand milk (private label), two of the supermarkets have the same price, while another two differ by 0.02 euro cents. For its part, olive oil costs the same in two of the supermarkets, while in another it costs 0.01 euro cents less.
Likewise, a dozen eggs of the same size have the same price in two supermarkets, while in another they are 0.02 cents more expensive and in another 0.01 cents. Finally, bananas cost exactly the same in two supermarkets, unlike another where they are 0.01 cents more expensive and another where there is a difference of 0.10 cents, cheaper than all of them"This is the reality we live in Lanzarote, day after day, without any competent public body intervening to resolve the situation so that citizens can truly buy the basics (fruits, vegetables, fresh meat and fish) at an affordable price, if the Price Competition Law were truly respected and complied with," they conclude
