OFT Fines supermarkets and dairy processors almost £50m
The Office of Fair Trading has today issued fines totaling £49.51 million on four supermarkets and five dairy processors for infringing the Competition Act 1998 by co-ordinating increases in the prices consumers paid for certain dairy products in 2002 and/or 2003.
Asda, Dairy Crest, McLelland, Safeway, Sainsbury's, Tesco, The Cheese Company and Wiseman all received substantial fines. Another firm, dairy processor Arla benefitted from complete immunity from fines by being the first company to alert the OFT to the existence of possible infringements and the first to apply for leniency under the OFT's leniency programme.
Asda, Dairy Crest, McLelland, Safeway, Sainsbury's, The Cheese Company and Wiseman received reductions in their fines because they agreed to early resolution. Each of these parties admitted liability for the infringements and agreed to a streamlined procedure enabling parts of the case to be resolved more quickly, thus reducing the costs of the investigation.
Tesco was the only firm not to agree to early resolution or immunity, and was fined £10.43M.
Douglas McLachlan, an Associate in the Competition Team at Scottish law firm Biggart Baillie LLP said:
“Yet again, this case demonstrates the value in co-operating with the OFT’s investigations. Almost all the firms involved had their fines reduced by about one third by agreeing to early resolution of the investigation, while Arla avoided a fine altogether by assuming the role of whistleblower. Only Tesco fought the case all the way, and were fined accordingly.”
For more information please contact Colin Miller or Douglas McLachlan.
The information contained in this article is given for general information only, reflects the current law on the date of the article, and does not constitute legal advice on any specific matter