Supermarket allegations: Consumers are ultimate losers

Consumers would be the ultimate losers if supermarkets were extracting retrospective payments from their suppliers, Commerce Minister Craig Foss said this afternoon.

Labour's economic development spokesman Shane Jones this afternoon confirmed he'd written a formal letter of complaint to competition watchdog the Commerce Commission over his allegations yesterday in Parliament that Australian owned chain Countdown was "blackmailing" its suppliers.

Mr Jones says suppliers claim they'd been told by Countdown to make retrospective payments to cover historic losses on their products or face having the products removed from supermarket shelves.

Mr Foss today said he was taking Mr Jones' allegations very seriously.

"It is for that reason that I've written to the Commerce Commission this morning to bring it to their attention so that I'm kept informed of their activity in this space."

"I'm concerned about allegations that harm New Zealand consumers ... it may end up resulting in less competitive markets supplying the supermarkets.

Mr Foss said Mr Jones' allegations were the first he'd heard of suppliers being tapped for retrospective payments by supermarkets.

He had previously heard of "heavy handed tactics" being used on suppliers by supermarkets but "nothing of the significance of the allegations yesterday".

The Commerce Commission will now consider whether to launch a formal investigation but Prime Minister John Key said he'd welcome an inquiry.

"I think it's a good idea for the Commerce Commission to look at that.

"But I would say this: They're unsubstantiated claims really the onus of proof to a certain degree is on Shane Jones and I'm just always a bit sceptical of people making claims under parliamentary privilege and then refusing to make those claims in the public domain."