Sainsbury’s-Tesco dispute to take ASA to court

SainsburyUK's second biggest supermarket, Sainsbury's has indicated that it will seek a judicial review into the decision by advertising watchdog, Advertising Standards Authority not to merit a complaint against its largest rival, Tesco for an advertising campaign.

It will be the first time that a dispute between the supermarkets will take the Advertising Standards Authority to court over its decision. Tesco had launched its "Price Promise" advertising campaign earlier this year that compared Tesco's own products and other branded products. Sainsbury's and Morrisons have been complaining that the comparisons were unfair and misleading for the customers.

Sainsbury's has claimed that its own-brand products are of better quality than that of Tesco and thus cannot be accurately compared with Tesco products. The ASA earlier said that it would not accept Sainsbury's initial complaint, which led to an independent review by Sir Hayden Philips, who agreed with the watchdog claiming that the Price Promise was fair there is no need for an investigation.

Sainsbury's commercial director Mike Coupe responded by saying that it was "time to take a stand on behalf of the huge majority of customers who want to make fair comparisons when they shop". He said that there could be around be more than 1,000 items that are "unfairly" compared.

Tesco's UK marketing director David Wood said that the argument from Sainsbury's was thrown out twice already. He said that Tesco Price Promise offers reassurance to the customers about prices of products.