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Recommended Retail Prices

Volume 301: debated on Wednesday 24 September 1997

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To ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will make a statement on the use of recommended retail prices in (a) electrical retailing and (b) newspaper distribution. [16576]

In relation to electrical retailing, the MMC found various practices which encouraged retailers to adhere to recommended retail prices, and concluded that the level of retail prices was influenced by recommended retail prices, and that tackling only the associated practices would be an insufficient remedy. They therefore recommended that recommended retail prices themselves be prohibited in these markets. I accepted their recommendation in my announcement of 30 July 1997.In relation to newspaper distribution the MMC, in its 1993 report, made no adverse findings against the publishers' practice of displaying newspaper cover prices, which are in effect recommended retail prices.