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Government's response on supermarkets report
The Government published today (Friday) a detailed response to the Consumer Council's report on supermarkets.
"We congratulate the Consumer Council for producing a valuable and constructive report on supermarkets," a Government spokesman said.
"The report provides an in-depth study of the state of competition in the retail market of foodstuffs and household goods. It puts forward recommendations which will bring about improvement in service by the supermarkets to maximise consumer welfare."
The Government response is prepared on the basis of views expressed in an extensive consultation exercise conducted both within and outside the Government after the Consumer Council published its report in November last year. The Response sets out in detail the Government's deliberations on the recommendations put forward by the Consumer Council regarding supermarkets.
The Government response makes two general observations on the report:
Firstly, the report adopts a narrow definition of supermarkets. It excludes other forms of distributive trades for foodstuffs and household products at the retail level which are in direct competition with the supermarkets. The market share taken up by the major supermarkets will be much less if the competition analysis takes into account of other close substitutes of supermarkets.
Secondly, the report has not found any evidence of collusion among the supermarkets or abuse of market dominance. On the contrary it suggests that in many aspects competition among the supermarkets is intense.
The spokesman said: "We shall take positive actions to follow up specific recommendations of the report."
The report recommends that the Government should inform consumers of the proposed legislative amendment on food labelling, and supermarkets should ensure that their shelves are free of out-dated products.
"We fully support this recommendation. The Secretary for Health and Welfare will step up publicity and enforcement efforts in conjunction with the Director of Health," the spokesman said: "Also all the major supermarkets undertake to check and withdraw any out-dated products."