Asda And Sainsburys Fined For Milk Price Fixing

Mon, 10 Dec 2007
 
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Two of Britain’s largest supermarket chains and certain dairy processors have admitted involvement in fixing milk and cheese prices and have agreed to pay combined fines of over £116m.

The fines follows an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) which announced back in September that it had found evidence of supermarkets and their suppliers colluding to raise dairy product prices between 2002 and 2003, costing consumers around £270m in the process.

The OFT said it had concluded early resolution agreements with Asda, Dairy Crest, Sainsbury's, Safeway (prior to its acquisition by Morrisons), The Cheese Company and Wiseman, based upon its provisional findings.

The watchdog added that Tesco and Morrisons have still to make final representations and agree their fines .

In a statement, the consumer watchdog said: "These parties have all admitted involvement in certain of the anti-competitive practices identified by the OFT in the Statement of Objections and have undertaken to co-operative fully with the OFT in its investigation, including providing further evidence as far as reasonably possible."

Meanwhile Arla Foods, which had previously applied to the OFT for leniency, will receive complete immunity from financial penalty if it continues to fully co-operate, the OFT added.

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