There shrinkflationa phenomenon that has been talked about a lot and is increasingly widespread in supermarkets, represents a strategy adopted by many companies to deal with the increase in production costs. In practice, the quantity of product in a package is reduced while keeping the price unchanged. While the product appears identical, the cost per kilo or per liter increases.
This mechanism, while not illegal, still represents a problem of transparency and fairness towards consumers, who in fact suffer an increase in spending, often without realizing it.
According to Federconsumatori, in recent years shrinkflation has led to an average reduction of 16% in the quantities of food and personal hygiene products, further worsening the burden of inflation on families.
But there’s a twist coming.
The mandatory label that will signal shrinkflation
On 4 December 2024, the Chamber of Deputies approved the Competition bill which contains a rule that aims to combat the lack of transparency linked precisely to shrinkflation.
If the measure receives final approval from the Senate, from 1 April 2025 the affixing of a specific label will be mandatory on “reproportioned” packages, which therefore contain a reduced quantity of product compared to the previous version.
The information sticker must clearly indicate the change that has occurredfor example: “This package contains a number of grams less product than the previous version”. However, it will not be mandatory to specify the percentage increase in cost per unit of measurement, simply informing about the change in quantity.
The label it must be clearly visible on the main field of the packageproducers will therefore not be able to resort to tricks such as asterisks or writing in very small characters, which are often difficult to notice.
However, the new label against shrinkflation will not be permanent: the provision provides that this remains visible for six months from the moment of the change. Furthermore, it will not be applicable to every increase in the price per unit of measurement, but exclusively to cases in which the increase is directly linked to a reduction in quantity (therefore to cases of shrinkflation).
This legislative intervention marks a first step towards greater consumer protection against incorrect practices by producers. What do you think?
