Earlier this week Tesco chief Phil Clarke was forced out after the supermarket giant's price cuts had failed to reverse falling sales.  Sainsbury’s sold Carex Anti-Bacterial Handwash for 10 days at the higher price of £1.60, and then as "was £1.60 now £1" for 28 days.  In Scotland, Tesco sold 4 bottles of Budweiser as ‘was £4.50 now £4’ for 21 days. It was sold at the higher price for 15 days, 41 days before the offer started.  Which? said these tactics need to be stamped out because eight out of ten people say they look out for offers in supermarkets, with most saying these deals help them to make the most of their budget.  Alex Neill, head of campaigns at Which?, said: “We've continued to find dodgy deals across the aisles, with prices in supermarkets yo-yoing between multibuys and discounts so that it is almost impossible to know the actual price. We want special offers to be special and are campaigning for simpler, clearer and fairer pricing rules and tougher enforcement action."  The Department of Business drew up its Pricing Practices Guide in 2010 with specific advice given to retailers on how to avoid misleading consumers on price including, among other things, special promotions.  One of the guiding principles is that “special offers” should not run for a longer period of time than the original price.  Asda said: “‘We would never deliberately mislead our customers”. Sainsbury’s said the handwash was “mistakenly priced”.  Tesco said: “We apologise for this labelling error, and have since introduced new systems to prevent it happening again.”  Have you seen any dubious supermarket deals? Tell us at money@telegraph.co.uk
Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury&rsquo;s are misleading consumers over "special   offers" that aren't deals at all, an investigation has found