LONDON – What will it take to get U.K. supermarkets to stop offering fuel discounts tied to grocery store spending? The model that gives shoppers cheaper fuel preys on independent gas retailers, Petrol Plaza News reports. In Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) negotiated a deal with large grocery chains Coles and Woolworths to stop offering fuel incentives.

The big chains of Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco have increased their portion of the fuel retail market by twofold, and now have nearly half of the fuel market, according to the Petrol Retailers’ Association. Supermarkets use discounts on fuel as a way to increase grocery store spend, which, of course, independent retailers can’t do. Rural retailers have been hit especially hard by slimmer margins, the Petrol Retailers’ Association reported over the summer.

Association Chairman Brian Madderson said the tactic has driven 175 independent retailers out of business in 2012. “This follows the admission by Justin King, CEO of Sainsbury's, in a BBC Radio 5 Live interview that the only product sold below cost had been fuel,” he said. “This was said to have occurred over a six-month period and increased Sainsbury’s national fuel sales by 6%. This is the equivalent to the entire annual volume of 40 independent retailers. Such practices are causing the continuing trend of independent forecourt closures.”