The UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has dropped some of its investigation against UK dairies and retailers over alleged price fixing in the dairy industry.
The competition regulator said this morning (30 April) that it has found insufficient evidence to pursue its investigation into price fixing in the milk and value butter categories.
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The OFT investigation looked at alleged anti-competitive behaviour in the markets for milk, value butter and UK produced cheese between 2002 and 2003.
“The OFT has concluded that the evidence it now has on file is insufficient to support an infringement finding with regard to liquid milk in 2002 and value butter in 2003,” the department said in a statement.
In 2007, the regulator had reached agreements with seven parties – including Arla, Dairy Crest, Robert Wiseman and Sainsbury’s – who accepted a degree of liability and agreed to pay fines totalling GBP116m.
The OFT said that it will reduce fines for companies who have already admitted liability to about GBP70m.
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By GlobalDataThe watchdog also revealed that it will drop its investigation into the dealings of UK retailer Tesco for price fixing in the butter and milk categories and said it would give the group a penalty discount if it does not contest the OFT’s findings of anti-competitive behaviour relating to UK-produced cheese.
Morrisons is no longer a party to the dairy investigation, as the only allegation against the supermarket group related to liquid milk, the OFT added.
The regulator said that it hopes to issue a final decision on the dairy probe this summer.
For the OFT’s update click here, for its announcement on Tesco click here, or check back later for further comment.
