Tesco is being accused of holding up the Competition Commission’s inquiry into the UK grocery supermarket sector.
The number one retailer has already told the regulator that it will miss an initial deadline of August 10 for returning a detailed questionnaire it received two weeks ago, said The Sunday Times.
The big four - Tesco, Asda, J Sainsbury and Wm Morrison - are said to have concerns about the amount of information sought by the commission, said the newspaper. The questionnaire seeks responses to 131 questions.
The questions cover a number of areas including buying, property, pricing and promotions. The Commission has also asked the supermarkets about the information they hold on customers and the growth of internet shopping.
“We are trying to be as helpful as possible,” Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco’s company secretary, told the Sunday Times.
“But they have asked for an enormous amount of information. With the best will in the world it will take time to recover this information from the nooks and crannies of the business.”
Other quotes suggest that Tesco is not alone in having concerns. “It took one person five days to assemble the data for just one of the questions,” said one supermarket executive.
“Our systems are built for selling things - not mining financial data,” said another.
The Commission is in discussion with Tesco about extending the deadline.
