OFT extends supermarket price fixing probe
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has extended its supermarket price-fixing probe to include health, beauty and grocery products. Major suppliers, including Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Unilever have been contacted as part of the investigation.
Supermarket chain Asda and Morrisons and P&G have confirmed that the OFT visited their offices last week. Sainsbury and Tesco say they have been asked for data relating to the prices of health, beauty, detergents and grocery products.
The news comes just days after the OFT announced it had launched an investigation into allegations that retailers, including Asda, Sainsbury and Tesco had colluded with tobacco firms to fix the price of tobacco products.
Earlier last week, the competition watchdog revealed it had paid Morrisons £100,000 after admitting it had falsely accused the chain of fixing the prices of cheese, milk and butter in 2002. The OFT made an unprecedented apology to Morrisons and agreed to pay the supermarket’s legal costs and may face a total bill of £500,000.
