He Socialist Parliamentary Group has presented a bill in the Congress of Deputies with the intention of promoting the modification of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users and, thus, prevent the practice of ““reduflation” and protect consumer rights.
Redflation, a term that comes from the Anglo-Saxon concept “shrinkflation”is a practice that companies carry out and that consists of reduction in the amount of product they offermaintaining the size of the container and the sales price. In this way they increase their profit margins at the expense of consumers, who receive less for what they pay and face a worse shopping experience.
It is proposed to force companies to report when they reduce the quantity while maintaining the packaging.
What was proposed by the socialists supposes the inclusion of new measures under article 20 of the aforementioned norm to force brands to inform consumers when quantity reductions are made in prepackaged products that maintain the same or similar design and dimensions in their packaging
The intention, as explained by the Socialist Parliamentary Group in their text, is to prevent the consumer from perceiving that those pre-packaged products whose quantity has decreased maintain their usual content, thus guaranteeing that they can make optimal decisions about your interests.
They point out that currently the article, which establishes the necessary information to be provided to the consumer, such as the characteristics of a good or its price, does not include those situations that may be included within the concept of redflation and that take advantage of the fact that, When purchasing, most consumers use price as a reference and not weight or quantity.
Nor, they explain, requires reporting when there is a decrease in the quantity of a prepackaged product, whose nominal quantity has remained constant, maintaining a similar design and dimension, so that the consumer cannot appreciate at a glance its variation and, consequently, the increase in its price per unit of measurement.
In this regard, they propose the inclusion of the following text: ‘When a prepackaged consumer product is put on sale with a constant nominal quantity, consumers must be informed in a clear and understandable manner whenever said quantity is reduced and this translates into an increase in the price per unit of measurement, maintaining the same or similar design on its packaging“.
This information must indicate in a legible and visible manner at the final point of sale the reduction in the packaged quantity and the corresponding price increase during a period of no less than 90 days from the first marketing of the product with the new features.
Reduction in recent years
The measure promoted by the Socialist Parliamentary Group responds to what has been observed in recent years in the market. They provide data from a study by the consulting firm Ipsos in November 2023, which indicates that 54% of consumers in Spain have noticed a reduction in the size of products in their daily purchases, mainly in snacks, bread, pasta, rice, sweets and pre-cooked food. Furthermore, 6 out of 10 Spanish consumers see this practice as unacceptable, which places Spain among the most critical European countries.
France or Germany have approved similar measures to stop redflation
They also refer to similar regulations in surrounding countries. They cite that last April in France, the Government approved the obligation to inform consumers about consumer products that have suffered a downward variation in weight or volume that gives rise to a price increase per unit of measurement.
They also refer to the German market, where the Packaging Law has been amended to prevent unfair commercial practices and ensure that the information provided on packaging is clear and precise. Thus, they have approved the prohibition of using ‘misleading packaging’that is, those that, due to their shape, size or design, may mislead about the real amount of product contained in packaged products.
