The Office of Fair Trading has turned down an FWD request for a moratorium on major retailers taking over smaller chains, despite a report by Verdict last month which predicted Tesco would take the lead in neighbourhood retailing by the end of the year.
FWD director general Alan Toft told ProWholesaler: “The OFT has replied that it does not believe that a moratorium is justified by the evidence of the Verdict report.
“It says that a moratorium would be impractical because not all acquisitions would give rise to a relevant merger situation which would be caught by the Enterprise Act 2002.”
He added that FWD took every opportunity to put its case before OFT and the Verdict forecast of Tesco neighbourhood domination was a chilling prospect.
“We believe we are right to exploit credible research company findings to maintain our long campaign for commercial justice for the wholesale sector,” said Toft.
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