Asda and Sainsbury's admit dairy produce fixing

UK supermarket giants Asda and Sainsbury’s today agreed to pay multi-million pound fines after they admitted fixing the price of milk, cheese and butter.

The retailers are among a group of major supermarkets and dairies to admit colluding over prices and have agreed to pay combined fines of more than £116m (€161m).

Sainsbury’s alone will pay watchdogs a settlement of £26m (€36m).

Other firms that have held up their hands in the investigation by the Office of Fair Trading include fellow supermarket Safeway, prior to its takeover by Morrisons, and dairies Robert Wiseman, Dairy Crest and The Cheese Company.

The matter relates to pricing during 2002 and 2003, at a cost of about £270m (€274m) to consumers.