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ARTICLE · 26 SEPTEMBER 2007

OFT Provisional Decision On Dairy Sector Price Fixing

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang
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On 20 September 2007 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced that it has provisionally decided that certain dairy processors and large supermarkets have colluded to increase the prices of dairy products, in contravention of UK competition law.

United KingdomAntitrust/Competition Law
Susan Hankey
Susan Hankey
David Marks
David Marks

On 20 September 2007 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced that it has provisionally decided that certain dairy processors and large supermarkets have colluded to increase the prices of dairy products, in contravention of UK competition law.

The OFT has issued a "statement of objections" to supermarkets and dairy processors which it believes fixed the prices for butter, milk and cheese by sharing highly commercially sensitive information, including details of the levels of price increases, in 2002 and 2003.

The OFT’s finding is only provisional and does not mean that an infringement decision is inevitable. This will depend on whether any responses made by the dairy processors and supermarkets can change the OFT’s views on the parties’ actions.

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