Notts man refers local pricing scheme to OFT

by Ewan Turney A 60-year-old Nottingham man has plunged the town's fledgling minimum pricing scheme into jeopardy by complaining to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Dennis Yates from Sandiacre ­ the man who hit the headlines in 2001 when he was jailed for handling a stolen World War II Enigma encoding machine ­ is thought to be the first individual or company to formally complain over the fairness and legality of minimum pricing schemes. The minimum price of £1.50 has only been running since 1 September but could now face a full OFT investigation over a breach of competition laws. Yates launched his crusade after being charged £3 for two pints of Carling in Flares ­ a regular of his and his mate's on a Wednesday night. Ironically Flares, owned by Mitchells & Butlers, is not participating in the scheme. A spokeswoman said: "It is part of a new, internal pricing policy as a result of updating our social responsibility charter. It is a coincidence that the price of Carling is set at £1.50. On a Tuesday night it is on offer at £1.25." Nevertheless, Yates is unhappy at the scheme. "You can't get a fair price for beer any more," he said. "It's a matter of competition and the point is the regime is restricting competition and limiting choice." He added: "When individuals get together to set a minimum price, that is price fixing and a cartel." The OFT confirmed it had re-ceived Yates's complaint and would be investigating the matter. "We would have concerns about agreements between licensees to set or fix prices and/or retail price maintenance by drinks companies," a spokeswoman said. "We were already aware of the Nottingham scheme and had al-ready requested information, that we are currently considering." An exclusive Morning Adver-tiser survey recently revealed that schemes set up by licensees are proving hard to maintain because larger pub groups, like JD Wetherspoon and Mitchells & Butlers, fail to support them. They are worried that schemes set up by licensees might contravene competition law. JDW spokesman Eddie Ger-shon said: "We are not surprised the OFT has received this complaint. The fact he feels he is being penalised concurs with what we believe. Part of our fears over minimum pricing are to do with pensioners being victims of it." Pubwatch chairman Michael Knight said: "It is his right to complain but it can't be a cartel unless everyone is involved in it. We still have a number of pubs not involved." Knight claimed that in the majority of town-centre pubs a beer could not be bought for under £2 anyway. He added: "It is ironic that it was Flares where he had the problem as they are not involved. He should be complaining to Mitchells & Butlers." l Nottingham's Conservative councillors have written to the OFT supporting Yates' stance.