Tesco is launching a legal challenge to the Competition Commission’s proposal to introduce a piece of legislation preventing stores from opening in towns where they already operate a large market share.
The “competition” test, proposed by the commission following its two-year investigation into the UK grocery market, will be delayed for at least six months due to Tesco’s challenge. A high-profile public hearing will take place in the autumn.
Tesco believes the proposal means regulators, rather than local authorities, will be in charge of deciding where people shop.
Tesco corporate and legal affairs director Lucy Neville-Rolfe said, as quoted in The Times: “The competition test would not address the planning barrier identified.
“Perversely it would introduce another barrier into the planning process. The bureaucracy involved would increase delays and costs - and even jeopardise long-term generation schemes - at a time when Tesco is working hard to keep prices low for consumers.
“Planning decisions should be taken by local people who understand what their community needs, and it is a matter of principle to Tesco that customers, not regulators, should decide where they shop.”
But the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has hit back at Tesco’s decision to challenge the test, branding it a “spoiling tactic”. ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “Tesco’s appeal should be seen as an attempt to delay and subvert the outcome of the inquiry.
“The competition test is a timid remedy that would have almost no impact on the encroaching dominance of Tesco in all but a handful of places where they already have in excess of a colossal 60 per cent market share. Tesco’s desire to quash even this indicates how divorced they have become from what is in the best long-term interests of consumers. This is a stark indication that they will stop at nothing to stamp out choice in local markets.”
No comments yet