Tesco, Carrefour to End Purchasing Alliance

British grocer Tesco and French grocer Carrefour have revealed their purchasing alliance, which began in 2018 as a way to trim costs, will not be renewed, Reuters reports.

Originally, the joint purchasing agreement was meant to allow the companies to cut prices by getting better deals from their consumer-packaged goods suppliers, like Procter & Gamble and Nestle.

France’s anti-trust authority imposed stricter rules on the alliance in December 2020 due to its potential of “weakening” smaller, private-label suppliers.

In a joint statement, both grocers said “they have decided not to extending their purchasing alliance beyond the three-year operational framework agreed in 2018.” The alliance will formerly end on Dec. 31, 2021.