{"id":7710,"date":"2019-02-20T07:33:20","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T07:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/sainsburys-asda-merger-in-jeopardy-bbc-news\/"},"modified":"2019-02-20T07:33:20","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T07:33:20","slug":"sainsburys-asda-merger-in-jeopardy-bbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/sainsburys-asda-merger-in-jeopardy-bbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Sainsbury&#8217;s-Asda merger in jeopardy &#8211; BBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Sainsbury's\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/F166\/production\/_103489716_sainsgettyimages-953367756.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">The UK&#8217;s competition watchdog has said the proposed tie-up between Sainsbury&#8217;s and Asda could push up prices and cut choice for customers.<\/p>\n<p>The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was &#8220;likely to be difficult&#8221; for the chains to &#8220;address the concerns&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The CMA also said the merger could lead to a &#8220;poorer shopping experience&#8221;.  <\/p>\n<p>Sainsbury&#8217;s boss told the BBC the findings were &#8220;outrageous&#8221; and he would continue to challenge them.  <\/p>\n<p>Chief executive Mike Coupe described the CMA&#8217;s analysis as &#8220;fundamentally flawed&#8221; and said the firm would be making &#8220;very strong representations&#8221; to it about its &#8220;inaccuracy and lack of objectivity&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They have fundamentally moved the goalposts, changed the shape of the ball and chosen a different playing field,&#8221; he told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is totally outrageous.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>These are the CMA&#8217;s provisional findings and the firms will have a chance to respond.<\/p>\n<p>The chains have previously said prices would fall as a result of the get-together. <\/p>\n<p>The deal would create <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-43945254\" class=\"story-body__link\">a business accounting for \u00a31 in every \u00a33 spent on groceries<\/a>, with a 31.4% market share and with 2,800 stores. <\/p>\n<p>Stuart McIntosh, chair of the CMA&#8217;s independent inquiry group, said:  &#8220;We have provisionally found that, should the two merge, shoppers could face higher prices, reduced quality and choice, and a poorer overall shopping experience across the UK.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We also have concerns that prices could rise at a large number of their petrol stations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-47303166\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images The UK&#8217;s competition watchdog has said the proposed tie-up between Sainsbury&#8217;s and Asda could push up prices and cut choice for customers. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was &#8220;likely to be difficult&#8221; for the chains to &#8220;address the concerns&#8221;. The CMA also said the merger could lead to &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}