[greenfield1]

I'm not saying there is no price fixing, but this could also be explained by the supermarket chains all using the same suppliers (which is most definitely the case since the dairy market is not as diversivied as one might think; it's dominated by a few big players) and those suppliers already doing cut-throat price competition with razor sharp margins, meaning that if the slightest cost increase happens then it impacts all of them and once one can't take it anymore and raises by a few decimal percentage points, everybody else will immediately do that to.

Ever been to a gas station? That raised the price multiple times a day just like the other gas stations a few hundred yards away? Same principle. Doesn't need price fixing as explanation. They are just all buying the same raw product.

[DrNosferatu]

This is nation-wide to some 10 million customers.

For your alternative explanation to be true, it would require that all the 8 retail chains would have the exact same margin by natural, fair chance - and, cumulatively by fair chance, increment prices by exactly the same amount, at exactly the same time...

Better play the lottery.

[greenfield1]

Why "natural, fair chance"? Of course they see what their competitors charge. That's one of the ingredients of a free market. The quicker they react, the quicker the information is dissipated in the free market.

[MichaelZuo]

That is an aspect of alleged price fixing for consumer products I never got.

It's trivial for every large retail store to just send someone to look at their competitor's prices and price at the same mark.

This is not feasible to do for B2B only products, such as bulk LCD panels, so it's a lot easier to prove pre-arranged price-fixing.

[moffkalast]

It's both. It's definitely both.