§ Mr. Kinnockasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection when she expects to publish the report of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission on the supply of primary batteries.
Mr. Alan WilliamsThe report is being published today. The Commission has found that monopoly conditions, as defined in the legislation in force when the reference was made, prevail in the supply in the United Kingdom of zinc carbon batteries and mercury batteries because Ever Ready and Mallory respectively 203W supply more than one-third of each type battery.
The commission decided that neither Ever Ready's monopoly position nor any of its practices were against the public interest, and made no formal recommendation concerning the company. While the commission found that the company had not abused its market power it considered that the possibility of abuse existed and that it was possible in some years' time there might be a case for a further reference. The commission therefore suggested Ever Ready's profits and pricing and discount policies should be kept under review and that for this purpose the Director General might consider inviting the company to provide him with the necessary information annually or from time to time.
The commission did not consider Mallory's monopoly position to be against the public interest, but thought that there was a risk of its profits being excessive in the future and that it was possible that in some years' time, there might be a case for a further reference. The commission therefore suggested that Mallory's profits and pricing and discount policies should be kept under review and that for this purpose the Director General might consider inviting the company to provide him with the necessary information annually or from time to time. The commission, did, however, conclude that the level of prices charged by Mallory on its sales of photographic batteries—which accounted for about 11 per cent. by value of the company's United Kingdom's sales of mercury batteries in 1973—resulted in excessive profit and thus operated against the public interest. It recommended that Mallory be required to make significant reductions in the prices of photographic batteries, the amount of the reduction and the particular photographic batteries to which the reductions should apply to be decided by the Director General of Fair Trading after consultation with Mallory.
In the course of its inquiries the commission found that there was substantial ignorance on the part of the public as to the most appropriate uses of the different types of zinc carbon batteries and hoped that Ever Ready would take further steps to make consumers aware of these differ- 204W ent applications. In addition, it would like to see both companies introducing the "use before" form of date marking on both zinc carbon and mercury photographic batteries so that consumers would know when to replace any that had not been used.
I accept the recommendation in the report. I am asking the Director General of Fair Trading to discuss the implementation of the recommendation with Mallory, and to discuss the other suggestions the commission have made with both companies.