Bid-rigging: OFT pays supermarket £100,000 over false price-fixing charge

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has been forced to apologise to Morrisons supermarket and pay it £100,000 following inaccuracies in a press release it issued last September.

The admission comes just days after the OFT alleged that 112 construction companies, all of which were also named in a press release, were involved in anti-competitive tendering practices.

In Morrisons' case, it was named in a press release at the same time as the OFT issued a Statement of Objections against a number of large supermarkets and dairy processors.

But the press release incorrectly suggested that:

• Morrisons was the subject of a provisional OFT finding of infringement in relation to milk, cheese and butter over a two year period (2002 and 2003), and that
• Morrisons had previously been warned by the OFT against anti-competitive behaviour.

The supermarket cried foul and brought a defamation action against the OFT. The anti-corruption body has now been forced to admit its errors and pay it £100,000.

In a statement on its website the OFT said:

"The OFT regrets that the press release contained these serious errors, and wishes to apologise sincerely to Morrisons for their publication.

The OFT was and is in no position to decide whether there has been a breach of the law until it has considered the responses to the Statement of Objections, including those from Morrisons."