British regulator drops pricing probe against British Sugar

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is dropping its planned investigation against British Sugar, a company accused of charging higher prices than the market standard.

The probe was initiated in response to a complaint filed by British Sugar’s rival company Napier Brown, which is a subsidiary of the Real Good Food Company (RGFC).

In a statement British Sugar said that it welcomes the decision by the CMA to not open an investigation, which follows a similar decision by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

British Sugar also stated that it was confident that it had acted appropriately at all times and is pleased that the CMA has decided not to pursue Napier Brown’s complaint.

The CMA was initially looking into the matter after Napier Brown refiled the complaint it originally lodged with the OFT, which was scrapped in March. The complaint said that British Sugar was damaging the business’ trading performance by selling its products at higher prices.

Napier Brown boasts a 15-20% share in the UK’s sugar supply and is said to be Europe’s largest non-refining sugar distributor. The two other producers active in the UK market are British Sugar and Tate and Lyle, which work primarily at refining imported raw sugarcane.

As cited in The Grocer, CMA said that carrying out an extensive investigation would require significant financial and legal resources, which could take up to two years. The authority further said that the benefits of the investigation were outweighed by the risks and resources that were required.

Napier Brown meanwhile stated that they are looking for alternate ways of taking the case forward.

The company was quoted by The Grocer as saying: "Napier Brown has an outstanding offer to take the complaint back to the European Competition Authorities in Brussels and intends to open discussions with them shortly."

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Image: British Sugar has avoided an investigation into its sugar pricing by CMA. Photo: courtesy of Mister GC/freedigitalphotos.net