Ruling on disclosure

Ruling on applications by ITL, Morrisons, Safeway and Asda for disclosure of documents relating to the OFT’s decision not to make a finding of infringement in relation to Tesco’s trading arrangements. The documents sought included internal OFT papers and any correspondence between the OFT and Tesco relating to the OFT’s decision, in effect, to drop proceedings against Tesco.

The Tribunal held that disclosure should not be ordered since the documents sought were irrelevant to the issues before the Tribunal in these appeals. It is not part of the Tribunal’s function to consider why the OFT concluded that it did not have sufficient evidence of an infringing arrangement between Tesco and the tobacco manufacturers.