France has tabled a draft law to clamp down on the kind of huge discounts that sparked mini-riots over cut price Nutella in a string of supermarkets last week.

Videos of scuffles between French shoppers as they vied to grab heavily discounted tubs of the chocolate spread in Intermarche stores have gone viral over the past week.

The scenes prompted Bruno Le Maire, the economy minister, to summon the head of Intermarche.

"I told him that this must be stopped -- we can't have scenes like this every few days in France," Mr Le Maire told RTL radio.

Intermarche sparked scenes of chaos last Thursday when it slashed the price of a 950-gramme pot of Nutella, the preferred breakfast spread in many French households - by 70 per cent, from €4.50 to € 1.41.

The chain apologised to customers after the three-day promotion, but has since launched other 70 per cent discount offers on coffee and nappies, sparking similar hysteria.

“It was horrible. It was out of control. Around 250 people were there when the shop opened, just to buy the nappies. Women were fighting each other” one store manager told the Republicain Lorraine newspaper.

“We had to call the police - the staff members were overwhelmed.”