Facua denounces that more supermarkets have joined the ‘non-aggression pact’ on oil prices

Facua has denounced that Aldi and Hipercor have maintained a “non-aggression pact” with the rest of their competitors and have applied price reductions to their olive oils, to match the prices imposed by Mercadona on August 21, a measure already imitated by Alcampo, Dia and Carrefour.

The consumer organisation has detected that on Friday 23 August Hipercor equalled the price of its own-label mild and intense olive oil to the price already set by the other four supermarket chains. Aldi has also equalled the price, so there are now six supermarket chains charging exactly the same for these products: 6.95 euros.

On August 21, Mercadona applied a reduction in the different formats of its intense and mild olive oils, and in the case of one-liter bottles they went from 7.62 to 6.95 euros (0.67 euros less).

Just a few hours later, Facua detected that three other large supermarkets did the same with similar products.

This is why Facua filed a new complaint in July with the Directorate General of Consumer Affairs, in which it revealed parallel price increases and decreases in the white label olive oil brands of eight major supermarket chains: Mercadona, Hipercor, Eroski, Carrefour, Alcampo, Dia, Aldi and Lidl.

The association’s analyses show how, on a continuous basis, when one of the chains modifies the prices of its own brand of olive oil, the rest imitate it to match it or reduce their differences by a few cents per litre.