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CC expands grocery enquiry with Tesco, Asda correspondence audit
The Competition Commission (CC) has ordered Tesco and Asda to provide it with correspondence with their suppliers, as part of its enquiry into unfair practices in the grocery market.
A CC spokesman said it had issued both supermarkets with Section 109 notices after its attention was brought to matters that "merited further investigation".
The companies have to provide the CC with emails and letters for a period believed to be from June to July 2007. It has no plans to approach other retailers at this stage.
Asda said it was "happy to help" with the enquiry, although it said its correspondence with suppliers amounted to about 11 million emails during the period under investigation.
Tesco said it had "nothing to hide" and expected the CC to conclude that its relationships with suppliers acted "to the ultimate benefit of the customer".
Packaging Federation chief executive Dick Searle said it was difficult to speculate where the CC was going with this latest line of investigation.
"If it throws something up then the exercise will have been worthwhile, but at the moment we don't really know," he said.
The CC said it was still likely to be able to publish its provisional findings by the end of next month.
Tesco: 'nothing to hide'
