Christine Tacon, the grocery code adjudicator (GC) has instructed Tesco to pay her authority £1 million to cover the majority of her £1.2 million costs for the year-long investigation that found the supermarket had deliberately delayed payments to suppliers to boost its own profits – in some cases with millions of pounds being withheld for as long as two years.
This payment is not a punishment; the GCA was unable to fine Tesco as its breaches of the code took place before her power to levy fines worth up to 1% of turnover came into force in April last year. The funding for the GCA comes from a levy on the 10 retailers covered by the code and they can be instructed to pay further costs of they are found to have breached the industry code.