On 7 July, we published an article entitled ‘Tesco talks down US criticism’ in which we stated that a union (identifiable as the UFCW) was represented at Tesco’s AGM by non-legitimate members, published an accusatory letter about Tesco which it had not first sent to Tesco for consideration by its board, was invited to discussions with the Fresh & Easy board (part of Tesco) and had gone out of its way to stand in the way of progress and that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that union and one of its representatives have been involved in dirty dealing and a smear campaign. We accept that these allegations are false and that the true position is, for example, that the UFCW has not been invited to discussions by Fresh & Easy. In addition, UFCW had offered constructive assistance to Tesco (which it says was rejected) and was not involved in dirty dealing and a smear campaign. We apologise to the UFCW and its representatives accordingly.