March 2021: Record of the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) progress meetings with Code Compliance Officers (CCO)
Published 6 April 2021
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1. Attendees:
The GCA (Mark White) and members of his team met with the CCOs and other representatives from the designated retailers as follows:
1.1 Tuesday 16 March 2021
- Asda Stores Ltd
- B&M European Value Retail SA
- Tesco plc
1.2 Thursday 18 March 2021
- Co-operative Group Ltd
- Iceland Foods Ltd
- Waitrose Ltd
1.3 Tuesday 23 March 2021
- Aldi Stores Ltd
- Ocado Retail Ltd
1.4 Thursday 25 March 2021
- Lidl GB Ltd
- Marks and Spencer plc
1.5 Friday 26 March 2021
- J Sainsbury plc
- TJ Morris Ltd (trading as Home Bargains)
- Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc
2. Key points raised
2.1 Updates from November/December progress meetings
There was a discussion about any issues arising from CCO progress meetings held in November/December 2020.
2.2 Whole-house compliance
The GCA expanded on previous discussions about whole-house compliance, looking at the tone from the top of retailers and further exploring training, including the link between training, remuneration, compliance and assurance.
2.3 Audit claims
The GCA discussed retailers’ audit claims processes and outlined issues raised by suppliers in this area, including the settlement of counterclaims. The GCA confirmed that he will continue to consider this issue. The GCA also discussed retailers’ supplier portals, including ease of navigation and ease of access to key documents.
2.4 De-listing
The GCA confirmed that, from the information he had received, it appeared that suppliers are routinely informed of the commercial reasons behind de-list decisions. The GCA considered with the CCOs a number of supplier queries around de-listing processes and highlighted some general issues that retailers might wish to consider to improve dialogue in this area.
2.5 Issues in the retailer’s progress report to the GCA
The GCA discussed any issues covered in the retailer’s progress report to the GCA.
2.6 Issues raised by direct suppliers
The GCA highlighted any issues being raised by direct suppliers specific to a particular retailer or sector related issues which the GCA wanted to raise with all retailers including:
- Forecasting
- Brexit
- Visibility to consumers of supplier payments/contributions on retailer websites
3. Any other business
3.1 Duty to report on payment practices
The GCA discussed retailers’ payment practices based on the latest round of reports submitted under the statutory reporting duty for companies and limited liability partnerships.
3.2 GCA levy 2021/22
The GCA confirmed that he had submitted the business case for the 2021/22 retailer levy to the BEIS Secretary of State for approval.
3.3 Tell the GCA reporting platform
The GCA referred to the recently launched tellthegca.co.uk reporting platform, which was not intended as a replacement for suppliers contacting retailers, him or his office directly, but for those suppliers who want additional reassurance they can use ‘tell the GCA’ to confidentially share their information.
The GCA asked retailers to promote the new platform with their suppliers.
3.4 2021 Annual Compliance Reports (ACRs)
The GCA noted that, as he starts to receive ACRs in the next few months, he will lead on feedback and share this with the Competition and Markets Authority.
3.5 2021 GCA annual survey
The GCA advised that the survey closed on 21 February 2021 as planned and that the data is now being analysed by YouGov. The GCA is likely to share the initial results in the early summer through a newsletter and webinar.
The GCA confirmed that deep dive interviews will be carried out after YouGov and his team have analysed the main survey results and that he intends to share information from these interviews at his annual conference.
3.6 Annual conference
The GCA confirmed that he is planning to hold an annual conference in September. The GCA is planning this on the assumption that this will be a virtual event but will make a final decision on this in the early summer.
3.7 GCA website developments
The GCA updated retailers on recent and planned amendments to the GCA website, including a recent webinar (in February).