Dixons comes under fire over high-street monopoly

Following the barrage of criticism levied at Dixons Group by Intel CEO Craig Barrett, the UK Consumers Association has called on the government to investigate the retail giant.

Barrett said on Wednesday that the dominant hold Dixons has on the retail PC market has meant higher prices for computers in the UK than the rest of Europe.

Yesterday, Phil Evans, senior policy researcher at the Consumers Association, sent out a statement accusing Dixons of abusing its dominant position in the market. "Dixons controls over half of the high-street distribution of PCs and they seem to be using this enormous market power to keep consumer prices high," he said.

Not only are consumers suffering, but small and medium businesses, which often rely on the retail sector for desktop procurement are also vulnerable, according to industry commentators.

Small businesses which invest in technology often do so at great risk, according to a spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses. "If a small firm wanted to update its technology, it would have to sacrifice something else to pay for it," he said.

"There is relatively little familiarity with technology within the sector. Usually it would be the owner of the business who goes through the procurement process and they will be relying heavily on the retailer to give them a good deal."