The UK’s leading supermarkets are under suspicion of being involved in the sharing of pricing data, after incriminating evidence is said to have been unearthed during an Office of Fair Trading investigation.

The OFT is reported to have told several involved in its biggest cartel investigation that its work has uncovered “reasonable grounds to suspect” pricing data has been passed among supermarkets via suppliers.

If the watchdog’s evidence that companies have shared pricing plans proves to be grounded, leading supermarkets and consumer goods businesses could face massive financial penalties - up to 10 per cent of revenues should it be concluded a cartel has been operating.

The OFT has probed at least 24 companies, dealing with a wide range of products sold through the supermarkets. According to the Financial Times, Tesco, J Sainsbury, Wm Morrison and Asda have all been raided this year and asked for information from other businesses including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestlé, Cadbury, Mars, Coca-Cola Enterprises and GlaxosmithKline. No individual company has yet been accused of any breach of the law.

The investigation was triggered by Asda, which approached the OFT after uncovering information during a trawl of emails last summer ordered by the Competition Commission during a separate investigation into the grocery industry. It is now allegedly focusing on whether the suspected information sharing broke the same laws which led to fines totalling tens of millions of pounds on the sportswear and toy industries in unrelated investigations.

The OFT told the FT it has written “in the interests of transparency” to update all parties in its “ongoing investigation into potential breaches of competition law by a number of retailers and suppliers”, but declined to give further details.

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