Supermarkets facing huge fines over price-fixing claims

Supermarkets are facing the threat of fines totalling tens of millions of pounds over the alleged price-fixing of shopping-basket staples and big-brand items.

The Office of Fair Trading has confirmed it has found evidence of stores and consumer goods businesses sharing pricing plans.

A number of companies involved in its biggest cartel investigation have been told by the competition watchdog that it had "reasonable grounds to suspect" pricing data was passed between supermarkets via suppliers.

The disclosure was contained in a letter sent out last week. It highlights the potential impact of a probe into the pricing by about 24 companies of scores of products.

This year the OFT raided Tesco, J Sainsbury, Morrisons, Asda and Proctor & Gamble - the world's biggest consumer goods maker. It also asked for information from Unilever, NestlÈ, Cadbury, Mars, Coca-Cola Enterprises and GlaxoSmithKline. No company has been accused of any breach of the law.

The letter says the probe is now focusing on whether the alleged information-sharing broke the same laws which led to fines for sportswear and toy companies in unrelated investigations dating back to 2002.