Independent retailers may be about to receive a fillip - the supermarikets might, and I stress that "might", be about to get referred to the Office of Fair Trading, says The Observer.
If they're abusing employees as appears possible according to the article then by all means let an investigation uncover this - it's not good for anyone. But I can't help feel that there's a danger of a number of smaller traders hiding behind this sort of thing - "we're too small to compete so we need regulatory help" could so easily become a fig leaf covering "we no longer have an economic business, we'd like bailing out".
Nobody in the software industry has so far complained about Microsoft, at least not to the extent of demanding statutory redress of some sort. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see why small players in other industries dominated by giants should have that right.
