– The grocery giants just have to prepare for the fact that it will now be tougher, says Jan Christian Vestre (Labor). He is Minister of Trade and Industry in the Støre government, and says that he is not surprised by how the food giants have prevented competitors from getting premises. Yesterday, news told how this has taken place, among other things with the help of almost 400 registrations that block other people’s shops, according to the Norwegian Competition Authority. Such barriers are called negative easements. This is an obstacle to competition in Norway, the government believes. – We will go after them, one by one. The first thing we do now is send for consultation a proposal that bans such negative easements, he warns. Minister of Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre (Labor Party) will change the regulations and practice by banning negative easements and exclusive leases. Photo: Remi Sagen / news Vestre believes the changes can go through quickly, so that the chains are forced to clean up. – We will change the regulations and practice by banning negative easements and exclusive leases which in practice limit competition in the grocery market. Professor: – Much more effective So how will such a ban work? Erling Hjelmeng is a law professor at the University of Oslo. He believes the current rules can affect cases where food chains try to destroy competition by blocking competitors from certain plots. But a new regulation will make the job of cleaning up much easier for the authorities. – If you look at this as a general problem, then it is much more effective and convenient to set a specific ban, which precisely affects this type of easement, says Hjelmeng. Erling Hjelmeng, law professor at the University of Oslo, believes in a ban on negative easements in terms of competition policy, but he does not think that is sufficient. Photo: Hallvard Norum / news With the rule change, the government will remove what they call barriers to entry. The goal is for a new player to open stores to take up the fight against the current three major players, Rema, Coop and Norgesgruppen. The hope that food prices will go down, because there will be more competition to win customers. But Hjelmeng believes the proposal also creates a risk that the food will be more expensive: If no new grocery chains come in, Rema, Coop and Norgesgruppen can more easily open even more stores. Norway already has an abnormal number of stores per capita, compared to other countries. – Then I think it is a timely question to ask: Is that really what we need, even more stores? Hjelmeng asks. For more stores also means more employees, which means more complicated logistics, and thus it becomes more expensive to get the item out to the consumer, Hjelmeng points out. – It is the consumer who pays for, says Hjelmeng, and sums up: – As a tool to bring in new chains, I have faith in the competition policy, but I do not think it is sufficient. When it comes to the existing chains, we risk getting more of what we already have, says Hjelmeng. Both Coop, Rema and Norgesgruppen have denied to news that they use negative easements to limit competition. They believe the competition in the industry is fierce. The Minister announces several changes Nevertheless, both politicians, the Consumer Council and the Norwegian Competition Authority have been in agreement for years: Competition in the grocery market is too bad. The audit recently said in an internal memo to the government that they saw problems with competition in the industry, but could not intervene as the rules are today. Vestre therefore received several pieces of advice from the Norwegian Competition Authority on how it can be easier to intervene in the grocery industry. The audit also described another problem: They must wait until the damage and the offense have occurred, before they can crack down on the behavior, described the memo, which news has obtained. Vestre will advocate changing the rules so that the audit can solve the competition problems even before the actors have done something illegal. The audit will then have a new role. In addition to identifying problems and cracking down on illegal behavior, as the Authority does today, they will also be allowed to intervene in the market with measures that can make competition stronger. – We will give the Norwegian Competition Authority greater muscle to intervene more easily where they see it is an unfortunate competitive situation, says Vestre. But the government is still in the think tank when it comes to a controversial proposal to crack down on price differences, which the opposition wants for consultation. – I am very concerned that we must know what we are doing, so that we do not risk implementing measures that will have the opposite effect of what we are trying to achieve, says Vestre.
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The government will ban the food giants from blocking new stores – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
