contents
Stefan Meierhans wanted to publish food margins. But Migros put the pressure on. The research of «10vor10».
For years, the two major distributors Migros and Coop have been criticized for their very large market position. Do they demand excessive prices from their customers, is the competition playing too little? The consumer protection foundation has created price barometers and animal protection has been examining the gross margins of conventional and label meat for two years.
Conclusion of the animal protection studies: Migros and Coop would skim too high gross margins on organic and label meat, at the expense of their customers and farmers. Migros and Coop vehemently deny this, speaking of intense competition – but they do not publish their figures. trade secret.
Now price supervisor Stefan Meierhans wanted to shed some light on the matter. He compared the prices of organic and other foods from different retailers. He wanted to publish his report on Monday – instead he published a blank sheet of paper on Wednesday. Note: The report on prices and margins in retail will be omitted for the time being “due to legal clarifications”.
“No transparency in the food market”
Market experts like Stefan Flückiger, co-managing director of Swiss animal protection and former responsible for agricultural policy at Migros are outraged: “Where are we actually?” In the background, there were probably power struggles among the actors. “People simply don’t want transparency in the food market”. What happened?
Insider: Migros is putting pressure on
“It wasn’t us,” said the Coop media office. There was no opposition to this publication. The price monitor himself is silent and refers to the legal clarifications. However, research by “10vor10” on insiders shows: Migros put pressure on the price monitor.
The group defends itself against the concept of “market power”. This is because there are other players such as Volg, Aldi and Lidl in addition to Migros and Coop. For Migros, this proves that the competition is playing. An insider accuses Migros of having threatened the price monitor with legal action if he publishes his study. SRF confronts the group with this allegation. Migros only answers: “We were in contact with the price monitor. We don’t want to go into the content of the exchange.”
Market share over 50 percent as an indication
Animal protection co-managing director and agricultural economist Stefan Flückiger assumes that Migros and Coop have market power. He refers to the label statistics, which he creates based on the information provided by the retailers. Last year, Migros and Coop had an 85 percent market share for pork with labels such as organic. For calves it was even more than 90 percent – with Migros alone holding a share of 53.7 percent. Volg has only 0.9 percent and Aldi 0.5 percent market share.
Competition lawyers say: A market share of over 50 percent and competitors who only have very small pieces of the cake are indications of a market-dominant position.
What does the Competition Commission do?
The Competition Commission (Weko) has the widest range of options for investigating whether dominant companies are abusing their position. At the request of “10vor10”, the deputy director Frank Stüssi says: The different margins between organic and conventional meat were already an issue. However, Weko has no evidence of price agreements or that the competition is not playing. The prices for organic meat are probably an expression of “consumers’ greater willingness to pay”.
Waiting for an ad
Since the beginning of the year, ComCo has had an additional tool to take action against companies suspected of abusing their market position: the so-called relative market power. It would be given if a farmer is dependent on Migros or Coop because he has few alternatives and the group would use its relative market power to put the farmer at a disadvantage.
Weko can initiate such a procedure of its own accord. So far, however, she has not become active. The lawyers argue that too little is known about the bilateral business relationships between suppliers such as farmers and Migros and Coop. Frank Stüssi: “Weko is dependent on concrete notifications in order to take action”.
«Price monitors must not let up»
“The Competition Commission is very cautious and relatively sluggish,” says Sara Stalder, executive director of the Consumer Protection Foundation. Your organization has already reported cases that have not been investigated. The price monitor is much more agile in comparison. “He mustn’t let go now because the competition in retail isn’t playing.”