Loblaw offering $25 gift card as goodwill gesture following admission to bread price-fixing
Loblaw wants to make it up to Canadian shoppers following the company’s admission that the grocery retailer has been overcharging for the cost of some packaged bread products for more than 14 years.
According to a press release, Loblaws has admitted to the price-fixing arrangement which “involved the coordination of retail and wholesale prices of certain packaged bread products over a period extending from late 2001 to March 2015. Under the arrangement, the participants regularly increased prices on a coordinated basis. The participants included Loblaw and the Weston Bakeries division of George Weston as well as other major grocery retailers and another bread wholesaler…”
“This sort of behaviour is wrong and has no place in our business or Canada’s grocery industry,” said Galen G. Weston, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of both Companies. “This should never have happened.”
In response, the companies are co-operating fully with the Competition Bureau investigation, eliminating employees responsible for Weston Bakeries’ and Loblaw’s role in this arrangement, enhancing compliance programs, and offering consumers a $25 Loblaw gift card.
Customers can visit www.LoblawCard.ca already to pre-register (request notification when registration opens) for the gift card which will be available starting on January 8, 2018.
The card program is “expected to cost between $75 and $150 million depending on customer take-up and to be an offset against civil liability Loblaw may face in this matter.”
As a result of their admission that they participated in the arrangement and their cooperation with the Competition Bureau’s investigation, Loblaw will not face criminal charges or penalties.