Economic Article Commentary - The five biggest supermarkets in the UK are accused of conspiracy with five dairy processors to fix the prices of milk, butter and cheese.

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UK supermarkets accused of price-fixing

Summary

The five biggest supermarkets in the UK are accused of conspiracy with  five dairy processors to fix the prices of milk, butter and cheese. This can result in a £270 million cost to the companies according to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Personal comment

I do like the article because it is easy to read, but still quite interesting and informational. The writer of this article really explains the situation of the conspiracy between the companies in a way that people like me, who aren’t that well in English can read it. And above that I now know a lot more about the situation of the supermarkets in the UK and how the consumer can be protected by the government through organisations like OFT. I also want to include that I think it is great that the writer I also  think it is quite interesting because I would like to know more about price cartels and how they are  . Like how a investigation of the OFT is working, how expensive this investigation was, if the supermarkets learned anything of this situation, and what the consumers think of this conspiracy. I think this article is good for just giving general information but if you want to know every bloody detail I wouldn’t recommend this article.

I think the connection between this article- the lectures Macro Economics & Law- and the literature I have read for the course is that the government is not only intervening through maximum prices and minimum prices, it is also intervening through forbidding any price conspiracy that will harm the consumers. So this is actually an example of government intervention in the UK. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything in the book about the OFT, but I did some research and I found out that this organisation is all about protecting the consumers and the competition market. I also found out that it is a government department that is not only taking action but is also doing market researches.

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This article confirms what is said in the class, because in the class was said that the government intervenes in the market when it is needed. For example when the consumers are harmed by the producers and the government thinks that the market mechanism can’t and will not solve the problem on itself. The article is just telling about how the producers are warned to not harm the consumers even though the producers say that this was in the best interest of the consumers. There’s a higher force to protect the competition in the market and the consumers, the ...

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