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An investigation by the Interactive Media in Retailing Group (IMRG) has found that the manufacturer is charging higher wholesale prices to online retailers.

'It's scandalous,' one Web retailer told IMRG. 'This manufacturer, who we have worked with for many years, encouraged us to be innovative and trade online, and we've had a roaring success together.'

IMRG and the OFT declined to name the guilty party, but some reports suggested that it is Sony. Steve Dowdle, UK managing director, denied any dual pricing practices.

'Sony offers a common basic trade price to all resellers, online and offline. What is true is that Sony offers discounts to qualifying retailers, which benefit consumers,'

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he told the BBC.

'The commercial conditions recognise the different consumer experience and service that retailers offer to their customers.'

High street retailers often get reductions in return for prominently displaying the manufacturer's products.

Nonetheless, the EC said: 'This scheme is either illegal or should be.'

James Roper, IMRG's CEO, said that there is no compelling reason to prop-up high street shops.

'Britain's high street used to be woefully uncompetitive and anticompetitive,' he said. 'A few years ago, government intervention ended the ultimate mechanism for stifling competition - Recommended Retail Prices - but the other main problem remained: there was not enough competition. The Internet changed all that.'

The IMRG report argues that some businesses have not welcomed ecommerce, not least because search tools and price comparison websites are enabling consumers to secure the lowest possible price.

The Internet, Roper said, has enabled 'consumers to source and compare offers from a whole new galaxy of suppliers rather than be limited to the choice available from nearby shops, and thereby achieved what regulation could not; protection of the most important consumer right of all, the right to obtain the best possible choice'.