Retail giant Tesco has won the opening battle of its campaign against new planning rules designed to boost competition between supermarkets.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal today found in Tesco’s favour, after the retailer appealed against the introduction of the so-called “fascia test”.
The Competition Commission had recommended the test be introduced last April, following a two-year investigation that found a lack of competition between the four largest supermarkets was harming customers.
It proposed that applications for new stores of 1,000 sq m or more would be referred to the Competition Commission if they gave the retailer more than 60% of the grocery floorspace in a local area, and where there were two, or less than two, different supermarkets in the area.
However, the CAT, presided over by Mr Justice Barling, said today that the Competition Commission did “not fully and properly assess and take account of the risk that the application of the test might have adverse effects for consumers”.
Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco’s executive director of corporate and legal affairs, said: “We are delighted with the judgment, which is a victory for common sense, and endorses our view that the proposed competition test was ill-founded.
“A new test in the planning system would increase costs and make the process even slower and more bureaucratic. It would be particularly perverse to introduce a test that would block investment in the current economic climate.”
Government is due to respond to the Competition Commission’s findings, and the judgement of the CAT when it publishes a new planning statement on town centre retail policy this spring.
