Milk and Butter Price Fixing
Sainsbury’s and Asda have admitted joining with other companies in fixing the price of dairy products in Britain, the Office of Fair Trading has stated.
Also admitting liability were Safeway, now owned by Morrisons; Dairy crest; The Cheese Company, and Wiseman. They have agreed to pay penalties totalling more than £116 million. Cases against Tesco, Morrisons and the dairy firm Lactalis McLelland will continue after no deal was struck. Dairy Crest is expected to pay a fine of £9.4 million while Robert Wiseman had agreed to pay £6.1 million.
The price fixing saw customers being charged 3p extra for a pint of milk, 15p extra per quarter-pound of butter and 15p extra per half-pound of cheese.
Sainsbury’s has agreed to pay £26m but insisted that its price initiatives in 2002 and 2003 “were designed to help British dairy farmers at a time of considerable economic pressure and public debate about whether farmers were getting a fair price for their products”.
Plenty of coverage via the BBC, The Telegraph and The Guardian.
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It makes you think just how many other items they have been fixing the prices with! No wonder the profits are up.