Tesco is to pay a £6.5m fine after the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) decision that the retailer fixed cheese prices was upheld.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) upheld the OFT’s findings that Tesco broke competition law three times by co-ordinating increases in the prices consumers paid for cheese in 2002 and 2003.

The OFT had originally fined Tesco £10m but the fine has been reduced following the appeal.

The OFT initially made the decision in the 2011 Dairy Retail Price Initiatives report after which all other parties involved admitted liability and paid penalties totalling over £39m.