The Office of Fair Trading announced the latest review this week, after widespread feelings that the Supermarket Code of Practice drawn up in March 2002 was not working.

The code was designed to redress the balance between retailers and its suppliers (PrintWeek, 2 November, 2001).

Independent auditors have now been called in to go through the supermarkets books to see if they are exploiting prices.

Fair Deal Group chairman Charles Trotman said: We have reservations that an audit will provide the evidence the OFT needs to be able to recommend sensible changes to the code. It is vital that suppliers are directly involved with the audit.

The Packaging Federation chief executive Ian Dent said: There has been a fear factor from suppliers in providing evidence to the OFT. Because evidence has been slim the OFT is doing its own audit.

Trotman added that with the Code under scrutiny from the OFT and the Competition Commission, suppliers should exploit this focus to ensure that their case is heard and acted upon.

The Fair Deal Group was formed in 2002 to independently monitor the Code (PrintWeek, 14 June, 2002).

by Philip Chadwick