Asda "regrets" milk price-fixing role

The OFT announced earlier that Asda, Sainsbury's and several dairy firms had come clean over their involvement and had been fined a total of £116m.

Sainsbury's has said its fine will be £26m, but Asda would only say that its fine would be "lower than Sainsbury's".

A spokeswoman said: "The amount of fines other parties are quoting assumes they will receive the maximum amount of discount for co-operation.

"As the enquiry is not over no one had a definitive amount as to how much they will actually be fined."

In a statement, Asda said: "Everyone at Asda regrets what happened, particularly as we are passionate about lowering prices.

"Our intention was to provide more money for dairy farmers, who were under severe financial pressure at the time.

"These issues concern all the major supermarkets but we've chosen to settle this matter quickly because we believe it’s the right thing to do for our customers.

"As you'd expect we've been cooperating with the OFT throughout and we will continue to do so, working with them to ensure better compliance practices are put in place so that it doesn’t happen again in the future.

"We now source our milk in a completely different way compared to four years ago. This allows us to pay more to our 550 dedicated farmers and keep prices as low as possible for our customers."