OFT rules against Tesco on Slough

LONDON (Reuters) - The Competition Commission said on Friday it had provisionally ruled that Tesco's purchase of a former Co-op store in Slough, reduced competition and choice in the area.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) had referred Tesco to the Competition Commission in April after the country's biggest supermarket chain failed to meet a deadline to identify a buyer for the store it had been told to sell.

Tesco was asked more than three years ago to name a suitable rival to take on the site of the one-stop grocery store in Slough once it had opened one of its Extra hypermarkets in the town.

"We will now look to discuss what action we can take with regard to the Co-op site and restoring competition," Inquiry Group Chairman and Competition Commission Chairman Peter Freeman said in a statement.

"As Tesco originally bought the Co-op store nearly four years ago, the circumstances surrounding this case are unusual both in terms of a merger inquiry and also its relevance for the ongoing market grocery investigation," he added.

The ongoing enquiry into the grocery sector -- which is focusing on supermarket dominance on a local as opposed to national basis -- has specifically named Tesco.

Tesco has a share of around 31 percent of the country's market, according to research firm TNS.