The performance of the Groceries Code Adjudicator

January 2017

Part I of Traidcraft's response to the government's consultation on the performance of the Groceries Code Adjudicator. 

The Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) was introduced following the recommendations of the Competition Commission, which found that the UK’s major supermarkets transferred excessive risk and unexpected costs onto their direct suppliers. In three years of operations, the GCA has made a good start in tackling this buying culture.

However, a much more proactive approach is needed to further reduce the instance of actual or potentially abusive purchasing practices, which were experienced by 62% of the suppliers who responded to the GCA’s 2016 YouGov survey.1

It is impossible to consider the performance of the GCA to date without also reflecting on the need for its regulatory remit to be extended. Direct suppliers to supermarkets often shift the excessive risk and unexpected costs onto their own suppliers. This is because complaining to the GCA risks identification by supermarkets, which may entail commercial repercussion.

The adverse effect on competition identified by the 2008 Competition Commission report will not therefore be rectified without an extension to the GCA’s remit.

We have also made a submission to ‘Part II’ of this review, in which we make the case for the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator to be extended to support fairer trading relationships throughout the entirety of supermarkets’ grocery supply chains.