The UK Competition Authority drops allegations in dairy cartel investigation (Tesco / Morrisons)

On 30 April 2010, the Office of Fair Trading (« OFT ») announced it was dropping a number of allegations in its dairy cartel investigation. The OFT conceded there was insufficient evidence of antitrust infringement in the information exchanges it had been investigating since 2003. The OFT announcement vindicates the decision by Morrisons to defend against the OFT's investigation rather than enter into an early settlement. This was despite the fact that seven other companies being investigated had entered into early settlement agreements with the OFT between 2007 and 2008. Tesco is the only party still under investigation by the OFT. In conjunction with dropping certain aspects of its case, the OFT also agreed to (1) discount by 10% any fine imposed on Tesco, in recognition of Tesco