Sainsbury's Still At Logger Heads With Arch-rival Tesco Over 'Comparative Values'

by Benson Agoha

* Is it fair? The argument between Sainsbury's and Tesco is set to resume at the courts.

The war between Sainsbury's and Tesco, two High Street retail giants, over values and relative comparative equivalent of products is far from over.

According to Sainsbury’s, it is set to proceed with an application for a review of an earlier rulling by the Advertising Standards Authorities (ASA), over Tesco's Price Promise.

In a news release, Sainbury's said it "has been granted leave by the High Court to proceed with a Judicial Review of the Advertising Standards Authorities’ (ASA) ruling over Tesco’s ‘Price Promise’."

The issue was that Sainsbury’s challenged the ASA ruling of July 2013, which enabled Tesco to compare the overall cost of a basket of its branded, own-label and fresh food against the same or equivalent products from Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrison’s.

Sainsbury’s said it argued that Tesco Price Promise was misleading, and compared apples with pears by failing to take into account product attributes such as relative quality, provenance and ethics.

"The initial ruling allowed Tesco to compare Sainsbury’s Fair Trade Every Day Tea basics with its own which are not, and Sainsbury’s basics cooked ham which is entirely sourced from Britain, against Tesco’s which is not," the statement said.

Sainsbury's said following a review of evidence, the Court has now ruled that "It is sufficiently arguable that there was an error of law in the ASA's approach to the matching of items for comparison, which error the Reviewer failed to identify".

"The case will now proceed to a formal hearing in approximately six months time," Sainsbury's statement said.

Sainsbury's CEO Designate and current Group Commercial Director, Mike Coupe said: "We are delighted the Judicial Review will go ahead. We do not believe it is fair to compare own-label products of different supermarkets. Our customers value our values."

"We strongly believe the quality of our own-label products is better than the immediate competition and this is a position we will fight strongly to protect."

"Values are fundamental to the way we do business and drive everything we do. We know these values matter to our customers and we will do everything in our power to ensure they can make informed choices about what they buy."

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