Competition Authority fines 6 chain stores, suppliers over ‘excessive prices’

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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The Competition Authority of Turkey has fined five grocery store chains and one supplier as part of the investigation into "excessive prices".

BİM Birleşik Mağazalar AŞ (BİM Combination Stores Inc.), CarrefourSA, Migros, Savola Gıda (Savola Food), ŞOK Marketler (ŞOK Markets) and Yeni Mağazacılık AŞ (A101) have been given an administrative fine of nearly 2.7 billion Turkish Lira (~280 milllion US Dollars).

The fines are as follows:

BİM Birleşik Mağazalar AŞ: 958 million 129 thousand 194 TRY,

CarrefourSA: 142 million 469 bin 772 TRY,

Migros: 517 million 672 thousand 762 TRY,

Savola Gıda: 22 million 210 thousand 998 TRY + 11 million 105 thousand 499 TRY

ŞOK Marketler: 384 million 369 thousand 37 TRY

A101: 646 million 582 thousand 329 TRY

It is announced that the justification of the decision will be notified later; the parties can lodge an appeal at the Ankara Administrative Courts.

Background

President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has recently promised to open about a thousand cheap grocery stores.

During a visit to a grocery store run by the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives of Turkey in İstanbul on October 3, he said, "As you see, this market is pretty fair in terms of products, quality and prices."

"Of course, there are instructions that we have given to the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives for a rapid increase in [the number of these stores]," Erdoğan said. He added that they plan to open about 1,000 stores in the first stage with each store being 500 square meters in size.

"Thus, we will hopefully be in an effort to deliver cheap and high quality products to our citizens and to balance the market," he said.

Turkey has seen a high increase in food prices over the past year. By the end of August, the annual increase in the food inflation rate was over 29 percent, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

President Erdoğan and the government have blamed large grocery chains for raising prices. "The necessary operations will be carried out against grocery chains. Five grocery chains collect all the products and the market turns upside down," Erdoğan said on September 23. (HA/SD)