Money blog: Supermarket imposes limit on Lindt chocolate bar as demand for new product soars (2025)

Millwall has become the first British football club to launch its own mobile network.

Millwall Mobile will offer customers discounts and exclusive reward offers, with SIM plans starting at £10 a month.

For £20 a month, fans can get unlimited 5G data, unlimited texts and calls and 20GB of EU roaming.

The network will be powered by Three, which is one of the fastest 5G networks in the country.

Millwall's chief commercial officer, Luke Wilson, said: "We're delighted to be the first club in the country to bring this model to the UK and to our fans.

He said it will offer customers "great value and flexible plans that reward their loyalty via the club benefits on offer – but also access to the best network in London."

You can read all the terms and conditions here.

Waitrose has placed a two bar per customer limit on Lindt's new chocolate.

The supermarket has introduced the rule for the extremely popular Dubai style chocolate in an attempt to regulate stock levels.

Steve Dresser, CEO of consultancy firm Grocery Insight, snapped a photo of a sign at one store that read: "No more than two bars per person please… because we want everyone to have the chance to enjoy our delicious chocolate."

A Waitrose spokesperson told Money: "Due to the incredible popularity of this product, we want to make sure that as many customers as possible have the opportunity to try it."

Lindt launched the bar in December after Dubai chocolate (chocolate with pistachio and knafeh inside) went viral on TikTok.

By Mark Kleinman, city editor

The Coca-Cola Company is in talks to return to the top tier of the Premier League's commercial partners after a three-year hiatus.

Sky News understands that the US-based soft drinks giant is in advanced talks to become an official partner of English football's top flight, following a previous deal which expired in 2022.

Sources said a multimillion pound agreement could be ratified at a Premier League shareholder meeting on Thursday.

Millions of people's DNA records are up for sale after a major home-testing company declared bankruptcy.

23andMe saw its chief executive step down and more than 15 million people's data put up for sale after struggling with weak demand for its ancestry testing kits and a 2023 data breach that damaged its reputation.

Announcing the move, the company said that data privacy would be an "important consideration" but that the goal was to "maximise the value of its assets".

So what does that mean for your data?

Cybersecurity expert Ross Brewer from security firm Graylog told Money the company's collapse could see customer data ending up on the dark web, placing them at risk of serious financial harm.

"Access to users' family tree information can allow human scammers and bots at scam farms and call centres to send more personalised messages, or more convincing fraudulent emails designed to persuade people to reveal sensitive information or install malware on their devices," he explained.

"For example, through accessing personal names and genetic details, scammers could more easily convince a target that they are a family member, or know them or their family."

Individuals' password information may also be compromised, leading to an increased risk of accounts being taken over, and further breaches taking place, he said.

"If cybercriminals have managed to compromise your passwords at 23andMe, they can potentially also access other accounts with the same password, such as utilities and banking, to cause more damage. They may even be able to access corporate accounts with the same password, causing a business risk."

This DNA information is also highly attractive to insurance companies, who could step in and buy these assets to collect family data and improve risk profiling to then change an individual's premium and cover accordingly.

What can you do to protect yourself?

"UK customers should employ good password hygiene," Brewer said, which means changing any that are the same as your 23andMe account immediately.

He also suggested using two factor authentication where possible.

"Be cautious and suspicious of activity that may result from a threat actor trying to impersonate you by stealing your identity, especially accounts related to health insurance, banking or other sensitive areas," he added.

Brewer said that it was not just private individuals but companies that needed to "fortify their defences" to thwart potential attacks within their systems.

"This requires that organisations focus on basic cybersecurity hygiene best practices and ensure they are monitoring their normal user activity so they can look for abnormalities as impersonators leverage their stolen data."

Ticketmaster may have misled Oasis fans, the Competition and Markets Authority has said.

The online platform has been urged to change the way it labels it tickets and provide better pricing information to fans as a result.

The CMA has been investigating the site following widespread complaints about the sale of Oasis concert tickets last year.

While the investigation is still ongoing, the CMA said it is "concerned" Ticketmaster may have breached consumer protection law.

It said the company labelled certain seated tickets as platinum and sold them for near 2.5 times the price of equivalent standard tickets, without explaining why they were more expensive

"This risked giving consumers the misleading impression that platinum tickets were better," it said.

It also found Ticketmaster did not inform fans that there were two categories of standing tickets at different prices, and there was no evidence that it used dynamic pricing.

"Many fans were under the impression that Ticketmaster used an algorithmic pricing model during the Oasis sale, with ticket prices adjusted in real time according to changing conditions like high demand," it said.

"The CMA has not found evidence that this was the case. Instead, Ticketmaster released a number of standing tickets at a lower price and, once they had sold out, then released the remaining standing tickets at a much higher price."

Budget airline Ryanair is launching an annual subscription to offer members discounted fares and other benefits.

The "Prime" service will cost £79 a year and will give customers access to reserved seating, travel insurance and monthly seat sales.

They will also be able to book an unlimited number of flights at cheaper rates.

However, the subscription is limited to 250,000 people on a first-come, first-served basis.

Ryanair says it will save members who fly 12 times a year up to £420, while those who only fly three times will save £105.

Passengers who sign up must be at least 18 years old, and is only being offered to those living in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, UK, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

It comes after Wizz Air last year launched a similar service that locked in the price of one flight per month for a set fee, and included bags and priority boarding.

The Duchess of Sussex has said she will launch a new podcast promising "girl talk" and advice on how to create "billion-dollar businesses".

Confessions Of A Female Founder follows Meghan's work on her As Ever brand, which will shortly begin selling jam, herbal teas, flower sprinkles and ready-make crepe mix.

She tells one guest in thetrailer to think of the experience as being in a "dolphin tank" rather than a "shark tank".

She asks another whether she is single now, talks about the "laser focus" needed in business, and finishes her voiceover with: "Let's do this, ladies."

She describes it as "a show where I chat with female entrepreneurs and friends about the sleepless nights, the lessons learned and the laser focus that got them to where they are today".

"We're diving into the highs and the lows and the kind of advice that turns small ideas into billion-dollar businesses and of course, we're gonna get some girl talk," she says.

Supermarket giant Morrisons is closing 17 stores and dozens of its cafes in a major shake-up of operations.

It will also shut a number of in-store services, such as meat and fish counters, pharmacies and market kitchens.

Some 365 employees are at risk of redundancy, but most of them will be redeployed to other stores, Morrisons said.

The moves are being made in an attempt to redirect cash to other parts of the business, and the cuts are expected over the next few months.

In total, 52 cafes, 13 florists, 35 meat counters, 35 fish counters, four pharmacies and all 18 market kitchens will be shut down.

Here's a list of the 17 stores that are closing down for good:

• Gorleston Lowestoft Road

• Peebles 3-5 Old Town

• Shenfield 214 Hutton Road

• Poole Waterloo Estate

• Tonbridge Higham Lane Est

• Romsey The Cornmarket

• Stewarton Lainshaw Street

• Selsdon Featherbed Lane

• Haxby Village

• Great Barr Queslett Road

• Whickham Oakfield Road

• Worle

• Goring-By-Sea Strand Para

• Woking Westfield Road

• Wokingham 40 Peach Street

• Exeter 51 Sidwell Street

• Bath Moorland Road

By James Sillars, business and economics reporter

Contrasting fortunes for two consumer-facing companies today.

The owner of B&Q and Screwfix has suffered a big share price decline at the market open.

Kingfisher was down almost 12% - wiping out all its gains in the year to date - after reporting a drop in annual profits.

The home improvement group, which also operates the Castorama brand on the continent, blamed soft demand for big ticket items such as furniture and kitchens.

It was leading the fallers on the FTSE 100.

The index, however, was 0.4% higher at 8,672.

Housebuilders were among those leading the charge after Bellway updated the market with half-year figures.

Profits rose 12% in the six months to the end of January.

It credited lower mortgage rates for helping to stoke consumer confidence.

The company's shares were 3% higher.

Co-op is launching an Aldi price match scheme for the first time in the latest sign of intensifying supermarket competition.

The programme is the biggest of its kind in convenience stores, with the prices of more than 100 items reduced - but it will only be available to Co-op members.

Everyday essentials such as fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy products and chicken will all be included in the campaign.

All 2,400 Co-op stores will be offering the new price commitment, which will also be available on online platforms such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats.

"I am very clear that, in this current economic climate, price is most often the deciding food shopping factor for our members and customers," saidMatt Hood, managing director for Co-op.

"Price has often been perceived as the Achilles' heel of convenience shopping, but this new, long-term initiative will change that and show there is no compromise in value, quality, or range to shopping conveniently."

The retailer has six million active members and has seen the highest influx of member-owners in seven years.

Anyone can join and become a member-owner for £1, which pays for a share in Co-op.

Tesco has recently slashed the number of products included in its Aldi price match campaign from 790 as of August 2024 to 645 last month.

Asda has also scrapped its own Aldi and Lidl price match initiative after 12 months as it focuses on its own "great prices" rather than those of its competitors.

Our business presenter Ian King has taken a closer look at the intensifying supermarket price war...