Planning applications for larger supermarkets should go through the Office of Fair Trading and not local authorities, the Competition Commission recommended in April following a two–year investigation.
At a three-day hearing set to start today, Tesco will appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, arguing that the so called “competition test” is unlawful and not within the Competition Commission’s powers to advocate.
If Tesco's appeal is rejected, it will not be able to open new supermarkets in areas where it has more than a 60 per cent share of the market.
Tesco will also argue that the new rules, if implemented, would cause unnecessary delays to many planning decisions.
Tesco’s 30 per cent share of the grocery market was found in the Commission’s April report to not be “insurmountable”. But concerns were raised that grocery competitors in certain locations were facing excessively high barriers to entry.
The Government is waiting on the decision of the Competition Appeal Tribunal before deciding whether it will implement the competition test. A decision is expected before the end of the year.
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