The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has provisionally found that the major UK supermarkets and dairies have collued over a two-year period, in order to increase the price of dairy products.
The findings, which cover a period from 2002 to 2003, relate to supermarkets Asda, Morrisons, Safeway, Sainsbury and Tesco, as well as dairy processors Arla, Dairy Crest, Lactalis McLelland, The Cheese Company and Wiseman. The OFT said the practice of colluding is harmful to consumers and could have restricted the competitive process, leading to higher prices. The body also said that retailers had been previously warned that their actions might be anti-competitive. Sharing highly commercially sensitive information is in breach of the Competition Act.
OFT executive director Sean Williams said: “This is a very serious case. We believe supermarkets have been colluding to put up the price of dairy products. Consumers have lost out to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds. This kind of collusion on price is a very serious breach of the law. Businesses should understand that where we find evidence of this kind of anti-competitive activity we will use the powers at our disposal to punish the companies involved and to deter other businesses from taking such actions.”
The OFT said it will not be in a position to decide if the law has been breached until it has received and reviewed the parties' responses to the statement of objections and any comments from interested third parties.
No comments yet