Tesco Commence Legal Action Against The Guardian

Wed, 09 Apr 2008
 
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Tesco has confirmed it has begun legal proceedings against the Guardian newspaper for libel and malicious falsehood following reports published by the paper regarding its tax affairs.

Tesco claims that a series of Guardian articles wrongly suggested it had set up an offshore tax avoidance structure in a bid to allow it to lower its corporation tax payments by up to £1 billion.

The UK’s largest supermarket chain insists its offshore arrangements had only allowed the company to save £23 million in stamp duty payments and that such schemes are common practice .

The company’s executive director of corporate and legal affairs, Lucy Neville-Rolfe, said Tesco had made the decision to act because it had received no response from the Guardian to requests to print an apology.

"We feel driven to take this action because we cannot allow Tesco's reputation to be so seriously attacked," she added.

In response to the legal action move, the Guardian has accused Tesco of employing "bullying tactics" in an attempt to end investigations into its tax affairs.

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