Asda and Sainsbury's fined over milk price fixing |
| Friday, 07 December 2007 | |||||
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Asda and Sainsbury’s, along with several dairy firms, have come clean over their involvement in fixing the price of milk, cheese and butter and been handed a £116m fine.  It follows an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading which announced back in September that it had found evidence of supermarkets and their suppliers colluding to hike dairy product prices between 2002 and 2003, costing consumers around £270m. The consumer watchdog said it had concluded early resolution agreements with Asda, Dairy Crest, Safeway (in relation to conduct prior to being acquired by Morrisons), Sainsbury's, The Cheese Company and Wiseman based upon the provisional findings made back in September. “These parties have all admitted involvement in certain of the anti-competitive practices identified by the OFT and have undertaken to co-operate fully in its investigation,” the watchdog said in a statement. It also said that having admitted liability in principle, each party will receive a reduced financial penalty on condition that it continues to provide full co-operation. 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. The consumer watchdog said it will continue to pursue its case against Lactalis McLelland, Morrisons and Tesco. Related Articles
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Bruce Williams
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Great! Well done Off... Great! Well done Office of Fair Trading, but why only a fine of 116m when cost to consumers (additional profit to sellers) was 270m? |
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