© Reuters. A customer carries a shopping bag outside a Morrisons supermarket in New Brighton, Britain, July 5, 2021. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s competition regulator has secured pledges from supermarket groups Morrisons and Marks & Spencer (OTC:) (M&S) to cease using unlawful land agreements after it uncovered 65 anti-competitive deals, it said on Wednesday.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the unlawful agreements included restrictions on land being used by a rival supermarket, or restrictions lasting five years or more that stopped landlords from allowing competing stores to set up.
It said Morrisons had the poorest compliance record it had seen, breaching the rules 55 times between 2011 and 2020, while M&S breached them 10 times between 2015 and 2019.
The regulator said that while 14 of Morrisons restrictions had ended, there were an outstanding 41 restrictions that it had agreed to address. Likewise, five of M&S’s restrictions have ended and it has agreed to address the remaining five.
“These restrictive agreements by our leading retailers are unlawful. There can be no excuses made for non-compliance with an Order…
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