Competition defends selling below cost as “pro-competitive” and advantageous to the consumer

The National Commission on Competition and Markets (CNMC) of Spain said in a report published on September 10, but released 22 of that same month, selling below cost should not be prohibited or widely criticized. Their reasons are that “in certain situations can be pro-competitive and result in consumer benefits unless it refers to cases already mentioned.”

CNMC made these considerations selling at a loss in a report on the “Code of Good Marketing Practices in Food Procurement”. Consultation Competition is one of the steps before the final adoption of this code, which has not yet been produced.

CNMC believes that it is not always abuse

CNMC frowns upon the provisions of the code on selling at a loss, because “reiterates the attention that operators have to pay to not breach the provisions of vigente25 regulations regarding selling below cost with what not It is novel. ” But remember your own opinion: that this practice should not be reviled a priori because it can be beneficial.

The “assumptions already mentioned” in which selling at a loss is objectionable refer to those in which the law prohibits this practice. They are, essentially, when mislead consumers about the prices of other products that establishment whenever “has the effect of discrediting the image of a product or property of others” and “as part of a policy strategy eliminate a competitor or group of competitors in the market, “according to the Unfair Competition Act 1991. selling at a loss was also penalized when the dealer has a” dominant position “and therefore the marked price can be” predatory “.