The UK publishers of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix are to take action against Tesco Ireland for a "serious injustice" of breaking the embargo on the sale of the book.
Tesco Ireland admitted yesterday that it sold four copies of the new JK Rowling book on Thursday ahead of last night's midnight embargo.
A spokeswoman for Tesco said the four books were "inadvertently" sold at their branch in Athlone shopping centre on Thursday night. "Copies of the book were left out in error; when the error was realised all the copies were withdrawn."
Ms Katie Collins, publicity director with Bloomsbury, Ms Rowling's UK publisher, said: "We will be taking action against Tesco for breaking the embargo. In the UK the vice-chancellor has brought in the John Doe law which makes it a serious injustice to do this."
Tesco Ireland has refused to say if it is concerned about possible legal action resulting from its early sale of the books.
Ms Rowling and the US publishers of the book are already suing the New York Daily News for printing extracts of the book this week.
A woman who bought the Harry Potter book from Tesco read an extract live on 2FM's Gerry Ryan Show yesterday. However, Ms Collins said Bloomsbury would not be taking action against Mr Ryan or RTÉ as the piece broadcast had already appeared in publicity literature.
