(Adds details, Tesco comment)
LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Tesco, Britain's biggest
retailer, unlawfully stopped major supermarket rivals from
opening shops near its stores, the country's competition
regulator said on Friday.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it first
discovered that Tesco had been preventing landlords from letting
property to other supermarkets during monitoring in 2018.
Tesco then reviewed all of its land agreements, finding 23
breaches in total.
"It’s unacceptable that Tesco had these unlawful
restrictions in place for up to a decade. By making it harder
for other supermarkets to open stores next to its branches,
shoppers could have lost out," said Andrea Gomes da Silva,
executive director, markets and mergers, at the CMA.
Tesco trades from 3,787 stores in the UK and Ireland,
employing 340,000.
"We do not use restrictive property agreements. However, in
a small number of historic cases between 2010-15, administrative
errors by former advisors meant that our internal processes were
not followed correctly," Tesco said, noting the discovered
breaches represented 0.4% of 5,354 land deals reviewed.
The CMA said Tesco has agreed to take remedial action for
all affected agreements and improve its internal processes and
staff training to avoid future breaches.
The regulator plans to monitor Tesco’s progress and may take
formal enforcement action if further breaches are found.
It is also writing to six other supermarket groups -
Sainsbury's, Walmart owned Asda, Morrisons
, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and the Co-operative
Group - asking them to show that their land agreements
are not in breach.
The CMA warned if any group is not compliant, it will
consider taking enforcement action.
Gomes da Silva said the CMA wants the ability to fine
businesses if it finds they are in breach of its orders and has
asked the government for more powers.
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Alistair Smout and Louise
Heavens)
Tesco (TSCO)
Marks & Spencer (MKS)
Sainsbury's (SBRY)
