Sainsbury’s-Asda Merger Blocked by CMA

Friday, April 26, 2019

The merger between Asda and Sainsbury’s has been blocked by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as they were concerned about prices raising for consumers, especially in petrol, and that it could cause longer queues in the already busy supermarkets.

Mike Coupe, the CEO of Sainsbury’s said that he does not plan to appeal this decision as they think that the watchdog was taking £1billion out of customers’ pockets. 

The deal that was originally proposed would have made the largest UK supermarket chain and would have accounted for a third of supermarket spending.  They claim that the merger would cut costs and would combat the likes of Aldi and Lidl from increasing in stores.