Morrisons Receives GBP100,000 Damages From OFT

Fri, 25 Apr 2008
 
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Morrisons has received £100,000 in damages and an apology from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) following after being wrongly identified in a price-fixing probe of the UK’s grocery sector.

The UK watchdog announced its decision to settle a defamation case after the supermarket chain took legal action over a press release issued by the OFT last September, which claimed it broke rules over milk, cheese and butter sales for two years.

The body has admitted it was wrong to name the supermarket in its provisional finding about a number of supermarkets and dairy processors regarding price-fixing.

The OFT also retracted claims that Morrisons had previously been warned by the group in connection with anti-competitive behaviour, which were not true.

An OFT statement said: "The OFT regrets that the press release contained these serious errors, and wishes to apologise sincerely to Morrisons for their publication ."

Rival supermarkets Asda, Sainsburys and Safeway (prior to its takeover by Morrisons), along with several other dairies, have admitted to price-fixing during 2002 and 2003.

Morrisons said it would give the £100,000 compensation to its charity of the year for 2008, a partnership between Help the Aged and Childline .

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