The Office of Fair Trading has called in the Competition Commission amid fears that tomato ketchup prices could increase unfairly following Heinz’s takeover of HP Foods.

The proposed £460 million deal has been referred to the commission, which could now force Heinz to sell some of its UK sauce varieties. “As a result of the merger, consumers could suffer from less competition resulting in higher prices for products such as brown sauce, tomato ketchup and baked beans,” said the OFT.

Heinz bought HP from Danone in August, without waiting for the approval of the OFT in the UK. While the company admits it knew this inquiry was a possibility, it remains confident that the deal will stand up to the criteria for clearance. It is already thought that Heinz will make substantial cutbacks to HP operations in the UK, and it is already reviewing two of the HP factories it bought two months ago.

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