The UK’s Office of Fair Trading insisted this afternoon (30 April) that it is “pushing ahead” with its probe into competition in the UK dairy market between 2002 and 2003.
The competition regulator announced earlier today that it is dropping a number of allegations that the country’s retailers and dairies conspired to fix the price of products in the milk and value butter categories.
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The OFT said that it reached the decision to abandon the charges due to “insufficient evidence”.
The OFT said that it would reduce the penalties for companies who have already admitted liability – including Arla Foods, Dairy Crest, Robert Wiseman Dairies and Sainsbury’s – from fines totalling around GBP116m (US$176.9m) to about GBP70m.
It also admitted that it has dropped its investigation into the conduct of Tesco in the milk and value butter categories.
However, a spokesperson for the OFT insisted that the watchdog is “pushing ahead” with other areas of the investigation.
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By GlobalData“We’ve dropped butter and milk in 2002 but are still looking at milk in 2003 – with the exception of Tesco – and UK cheese for 2002-3,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that the OFT is evaluating all the evidence it has collected and expects to reach a final decision this summer.
“We are reaching the end of the investigation,” the spokesperson insisted.
For its part, Tesco said that it would not contest its inclusion in the investigation into UK-produced cheese, but again insisted that it is innocent of any wrong-doing.
“We firmly maintain that we are innocent of all allegations against us and at no point sought to collude with other retailers or dairy processors on prices. But given the passage of time and the cost of litigation, we are keen to bring this lengthy and costly process to a close,” the retailer said.
