raveydavey
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Rip Off Britain Part XVIIWidely reported across the UK media today...
UP to 100 top brands including Coca-Cola, PG Tips and Aquafresh were at the centre of a price-fixing probe last night.
They feature on a five-page hitlist of grocery items compiled by the Office of Fair Trading.
Last week investigators from the competition watchdog raided major supermarkets — including Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s — amid suspicions the retailers had conspired to fix prices.
The officials reportedly seized hundreds of emails between the chains and their suppliers.
The inquiry is focussing on up to 100 well-known brands — also including Andrex toilet paper, Anadin Extra painkilling tablets, Colgate toothpaste and Warburtons bread.
Manufacturers including Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever and Kimberley-Clark have also been asked to provide pricing information by the end of June.
If any of the firms are found guilty of fixing prices they could be fined up to ten per cent of their annual sales — potentially hundreds of millions of pounds.
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halfaperson
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Suprise suprise. There's also a sneaking suspicion that the oil producers do a simular thing
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raveydavey
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| halfaperson wrote: | | Suprise suprise. There's also a sneaking suspicion that the oil producers do a simular thing |
Really? 
There was me thinking the price of a litre of diesel going up FOUR BLOODY PENCE* at nearly every filling station last week was just a co-incidence...
*4p a litre is around 18p a gallon and they would never have dared put a gallon up by so much in a week. Another sign that metrification has ruined our once proud land.
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wewantourdarbyback
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Coca-cola PG tips and aquafresh?
thats a strange cocktail
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cardboardbox?Youwerelucky
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Problem with this is (and I DO think they deserve fining) is that all these investigations and penalties STILL come back to one set of people paying the price - US (meaning US not the United States  )
In my industry the FSA went to the banks 2 years ago and effecting demanded that they reduce the "final exit fee" from repaying a mortgage (whether that be because you were moving it else where or you had literally repaid yourmortgage in full) - these fees were between £200 - £300 and the FSA spent millions paying for an independent company to work out that the cost to the lender was about £40 (average) - the majority of lenders complied and either did away with the fees altogether or reduced them dramatically BUT they then went and INCREASED the arrangement fees on every mortgage they had on their books by TWICE the amount of the exit fee - NOW you are lucky to get a mortgage with an arrangement fee of less than £600 (2 years ago the average fee was about £199)
The same will happen with the OFT case against banks for their charges on unpaid items and unauthorised overdrafts - they make billions from this and guess what IF they are ordered to refund everyone they will simply put an end to free banking in this country - so WE ALL SUFFER as a result.
All these corporate companies are NOT going to let their profits be reduced therefore their workforce suffer (when they cut back departments and people lose jobs) and WE suffer as they increase their prices left right and centre to compensate from the losses tey incur from these "investigation"
It all BOLLOX
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