The Forum of Private Business responds to news the Groceries Code Adjudicator – a new supermarket watchdog – will now have the direct power to fine retailers.
The small business support group has persistently lobbied government to include fining powers in the final bill, and today welcomed the news this was now happening.
“The Government has given thousands of small suppliers an early Christmas present with this announcement,” said the Forum’s head of policy, Alex Jackman.
“We have always supported the concept of the Groceries Code Adjudicator, but said it would be seriously undermined without the power to fine, a tool without which would have rendered a body like this unfit for purpose from the outset.
“Supermarkets understand one thing, and one thing only, and that’s money”
He added: “Supermarkets understand one thing, and one thing only, and that’s money. So it’s just common sense for the Adjudicator to be able to wield this kind of weapon as a measure of last resort in the worst cases of supermarket malpractice.
“The Adjudicator now has the means and the purpose to do its job properly – and that’s to be the guardian and friend of poorly treated suppliers.”
