Suppliers should use trade associations to go to GCA
Suppliers should use trade associations to go to GCA
Groceries Code Adjudicator, Christine Tacon, has appealed to suppliers to voice their concerns via their trade association and should not be afraid to raise evidence of code breaches.
Groceries Code Adjudicator, Christine Tacon CBE
Speaking at the recent AGM and lunch for the PTF Tacon said: “I have a legal obligation to protect anonymity, but what suppliers can do is to voice their concerns via their trade associations, such as the PTF.”
The GCA has published its first annual report and can claim several successes. It announced that the second largest issue reported to the GCA concerned incorrect requests for payments going back for six years, in response to which GCA has persuaded eight of the main retailers, not Sainsburys or Waitrose, to restrict their forensic auditing to two years rather than six to which they are legally entitled.
It also highlighted two case studies that have helped to clarify parts of Code. These were that payments for shelf-positioning and payments to meet target service levels were clear breaches of the Code and retailers, Tesco and Morrisons respectively have agreed to drop the practices that led to the challenges by the GCA.
