A group representing 1,500 newsagents has called on the Competition Authority to force newspaper and magazine distributor Eason & Son to change distribution practices that it says are unfavourable to smaller retailers, should the authority approve Eason's joint venture with Scottish logistics firm John Menzies.
Although it is not asking the Competition Authority to reject the merger, the Convenience Stores & Newsagents Association (CSNA) says the Easons-Menzies joint venture is "unwelcome" unless an entire overhaul of supply methods is put in place.
It wants the Competition Authority to classify the deal as a media merger, which would mean it would have to be sent to the Minister for Enterprise, Micheál Martin, for final approval.
Earlier this month, Eason & Son signed a joint venture with Menzies to distribute newspapers and magazines to about 5,200 retailers in the Republic and the North.
The two companies are forming a new company called EM News Distribution, which will have estimated gross assets of almost €10 million.
Vincent Jennings, chief executive of CSNA, told The Irish Timesthat he was not happy with the merger going ahead in its current form without some restrictions.
The CSNA is objecting to a practice whereby retailers are forced to accept unsolicited magazine titles from Eason as a result of an insistence by publishers that their entire range of publications be made available to news outlets in the State. This leads to an oversupply of unwanted titles, or "box-outs".
"With waste charges running at several thousand euro per annum in many outlet, and wages of dedicated staff costing upwards of €500 per week, it is neither just nor proper that the retailers are not permitted to maintain their own stock ordering and maintenance," the CSNA says in its submission to the Competition Authority.
The association wants retailers in the Republic to be allowed to reject amendments to their existing orders, and reject so-called "turkey titles", as retailers in the UK are able to do under an industry agreement.
The CSNA also warns that the escalation of delivery charges in recent years is threatening the viability of many small outlets.
Eason's delivery charges have increased 244 per cent since 1999, according to the CSNA's chief executive.
As around 1,200 to 1,400 titles are distributed exclusively through Eason, the Competition Authority should reflect upon the principle of delivery charges, which are not levied by distributors of other grocery products, but subsumed within the wholesale price.
Mr Jennings is concerned by a practice known as "flash pricing", whereby UK publishers print the euro price on their titles, using a "ready reckoner" guide supplied by Eason.
The CSNA objects to publishers setting a retail price for their products and says the euro prices printed are sometimes inaccurate, failing to include the 21 per cent VAT charged on magazines in the Republic.
