* Napier Brown complains of abuse of dominant marketposition
* ABF says any regulator would find it acted appropriately
* Separately, German refiners recently fined over cartel
By David Brough
LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Napier Brown, a unit of The RealGood Food Company, has complained to Britain's Office of FairTrading (OFT) alleging an abuse of a dominant position byBritish Sugar, a major supplier to Napier Brown.
In its third quarter trading update issued this month, TheReal Good Food Company said "instability in the sugar market isgiving us short-term challenges."
"It is very disappointing that we find ourselves in theposition where a major supplier is, in our view, abusing itsdominant market position in the supply of sugar to us," saidPieter Totté, executive chairman of The Real Good Food Company.
"If British Sugar is allowed to impose a price on NapierBrown, its largest customer and the UK's largest reseller ofsugar, without any reference to market pricing, the consequentimpact on UK customers and consumers would be significant."
British Sugar, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods(ABF), is a leading sugar supplier in Britain.
A spokesperson for ABF said the commercial dispute betweenthe two companies was not a matter upon which it was appropriateto comment.
"The matter was recently considered by the relevantregulator, the OFT who has undertaken a preliminary high levelassessment, listened to the respective parties and in Februarytook a decision not to open an investigation."
The OFT has now confirmed to representatives of Napier Brownthat the complaint has been referred to the new Competition andMarkets Authority (CMA), the successor to the OFT, which beginsoperating on April 1, 2014, RGFC said.
However, the ABF spokesperson said there had been no"referral", as that term was commonly used, to the new CMA.
"We understand that the OFT will make the CMA aware of thecomplaint and its decision not to investigate," the spokespersonsaid. "British Sugar is confident that were the CMA or any otherregulator to look at this matter it would find that BritishSugar has acted appropriately."
Europe's largest sugar producer, Germany's Suedzucker, saidlast Tuesday it had been fined 195.5 million euros ($268million) by Germany's cartel office for past collusion withother sugar producers.
