On the eve of a meeting between the Minister of the Economy and distributors on inflation, the CEO of Carrefour said on Tuesday that he would ask Bruno Le Maire “a moratorium” on the application of the Descrozaille law, which regulates the promotions of certain products and should come into force in March 2024. According to Alexandre Bompard, this law “leads (distributors) to having to limit promotions in drugstores, for care and hygiene products to 34%” , he developed on Franceinfo.
“Today I can sell laundry detergent at 50% or 60% off,” he explained. But as soon as this “bad law” as he describes it is applied, Carrefour like the other distributors will be “forced to limit itself to 34%”. Alexandre Bompard lamented that consumers, hit by inflation, are depriving themselves of “essential” products such as “feminine protections, diapers, toothpaste”, which show sales declines “in double digits”. The Descrozaille law “benefits only three large global multinationals”, estimated the CEO, who quoted Procter
Led by Renaissance MP Frédéric Descrozaille, the text was decried by distributors, one of the main points of tension relating to the 34% cap on “shock” promotions on non-food products, deemed “irresponsible and inflationary” by the federation employers of large retailers, the FCD. Deputies and senators had however maintained the cap, but agreed to postpone the entry into force to March 1, 2024.
Distributors and manufacturers are again invited to Bercy this week, Wednesday morning for distributors, Thursday for manufacturers, “to ask them to extend their operations, which have worked”, said Bruno Le Maire Monday on France Inter. Manufacturers explained before the summer that they had committed to an “effort”, generally in the form of temporary promotions, on the price of “about 1,000 products” from major brands.
Before the manufacturers, the supermarkets had for their part committed in mid-March, within the framework of a commercial operation not very restrictive called “anti-inflation quarter” – since extended -, to sell a selection of products left to their discretion, at the “lowest possible price”.
