Tesco unlawfully stopped rivals from opening stores: UK regulator

[February 14, 2020]  LONDON (Reuters) - Tesco <TSCO.L>, 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.

The CMA said Tesco has agreed to take remedial action for all affected land agreements and improve its internal processes and staff training to avoid future breaches. It plans to monitor Tesco’s progress and may take formal enforcement action if further breaches are found.

(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Alistair Smout)

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