ASDA-OWNER Wal-Mart is understood to have blown the whistle on alleged price-fixing of food and toiletries.
Reports that the US firm pointed the finger over grocery price-fixing will leave it immune from any fines that may arise from the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) investigation into the allegations.
Any company found guilty of cartel activity coul
d be fined up to 10 per cent of its annual worldwide sales, which in the case of Wal-Mart would amount to $37 billion (£18.7bn).
The OFT's inquiry has involved some of the UK's biggest supermarkets, including Tesco and Sainsbury's, and some of the biggest global manufacturers, such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser.
Wal-Mart's whistle-blowing is expected to make it unpopular with other companies embroiled in the investigation, some of which are its suppliers.
All of the supermarkets and manufacturers involved in the inquiry have strenuously denied any wrong-doing.
Wal-Mart is believed to have contacted the OFT following the regulator's investigation into the alleged price-fixing of dairy products in UK supermarkets.
Some senior supermarket executives have dismissed the OFT's investigation as a "fishing expedition", although the OFT has an "evidence threshold" that must be passed before it can launch an inquiry.
It could be up to two years before the OFT publishes the results of its investigation, according to legal experts.
Last week, the Competition Commission completed a separate two-year investigation into the UK's supermarkets and reported that the sector was largely in good health.
However, it said it had uncovered e-mails that "might raise issues of co-ordination" between supermarkets and suppliers. The commission said it had passed the e-mails to the OFT.
The full article contains 293 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
