Price collusion fines reduced

London: The British Office of Fair Trading reduced fines imposed on supermarkets and food producers who admitted to colluding on dairy prices, after dropping some allegations because of insufficient evidence.

Penalties imposed in 2007 have been reduced to £70 million (€80.79m) from £116m, the regulator said. After receiving new submissions and evidence, the OFT said it determined that “the evidence it had on file is insufficient to support an infringement finding” relating to pricing of liquid milk and value butter.

The OFT said in a separate statement it dropped three allegations against Tesco.