The Director of Consumer Affairs is to take legal action against Tesco Ireland over allegations of overcharging. The director, Ms Carmel Foley, has issued a summons to the company accusing it of giving "false and misleading" prices for certain products contrary to Section 7 of the 1978 Consumer Information Act.
According to sources the case between Ms Foley and the company is likely to be heard before the Dublin District Court in a few months. If Tesco was found guilty it would face a fine.
In March Tesco faced an angry reaction from customers when researchers from RGDATA, the independent retailers' organisation, claimed to have found instances of overcharging in six Tesco supermarkets in Dublin and Wicklow. The main problem identified was said to be failure to pass on "money off" offers to customers. In the RGDATA survey, the average overcharging claimed came to 3 per cent of the bill.
Before the RGDATA survey, members of the public had complained to Ms Foley of overcharging and she began her own investigation. This included sending inspectors from her office into stores around the Republic.
The legal action against the company relates to instances in late 1998 and early 1999 and involves several stores. No one was available from the company last night for comment.
In a previous statement the company said: "Overpricing incidences are uncommon and when brought to our attention are dealt with speedily and without question."
It initiated a policy of refunding, and Ms Foley acknowledged subsequently that procedures had been tightened.
Tesco said the installation of a new IT/checkout system at its stores had been one of the reasons for the mistakes.
"In any large and complex grocery retailing system, errors do arise and are dealt with when detected," it said.
Sources in the retail industry said that if Tesco was found guilty any fine was likely to be small in comparison to the £1.06 billion in turnover it recorded in the Republic in the year to February 28th.
Ms Foley was involved in a separate investigation of Superquinn in recent months.
The supermarket was accused of collecting "hello money" from its suppliers, and Ms Foley decided not to take legal action only after the company gave a commitment to cease asking suppliers for what it described as "support payments."