It is “unlikely” that supermarkets are misleading shoppers with loyalty promotions, the Competition and markets Authority (CMA) found in its latest Cost Of Living Update.

The research looked at tens of thousands of loyalty price promotions to decide whether non-loyalty (or non-member) prices may have been artificially inflated to make the loyalty card programme appear “misleadingly attractive”.

It comes after supermarkets came under fire during the cost-of-living crisis for offering lower prices to those who had joined loyalty schemes such as Sainsbury’s Nectar Card or Tesco Clubcard, while others paid more.

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Last year the CMA announced it would investigate the impact of this pricing on consumers amid concerns it could limit competition.

Further findings will be published this autumn, as an investigation is still underway.

Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts has previously defended the use of Nectar cards and selling consumer data to advertisers, saying that they help make advertising “more relevant”.

Consumer rights focused magazine Which? has also warned over the use of challenges by supermarkets which it says could lead to shoppers overspending.