LONDON, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Britain's four largest grocery chains are under investigation for allegedly bullying farmers and suppliers into cutting prices, a report said Sunday.
Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons has been ordered by Britain's Competition Commission to submit copies of communication with suppliers during five weeks in June and July when the stores initiated more than $1 billion in price cuts, Britain's Sunday Telegraph reported.
Farmers and other suppliers allege they were pressured into cutting prices or threatened with losing the stores' business, The Telegraph reported.
Tesco alone controls nearly a third of the United Kingdom's grocery market and has been accused of hastening the demise of more than 1,300 independent grocers in the last year.
The four supermarket chains insist they have done nothing illegal and have nothing to hide, The Telegraph reported.
