The UK’s Federation of Wholesale Distributors (FWD) is to drop its appeal against the acquisition by UK retail giant Tesco of convenience store firm Adminstore due to high legal costs.

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The FWD launched an appeal with the Competition Appeal Tribunal after the Office of Fair Trading gave the go-ahead to the acquisition. However, now the FWD has said it is withdrawing its appeal after Tesco hired Freshfields law firm to defend the deal, reported The Times.


“We were in contest with the Office of Fair Trading, which cleared the Adminstore acquisition, but the intervention of Tesco has moved the goalposts,” said Alan Toft, director general of the FWD.


“We do not have the financial resources to compete with the combined might of the OFT and Tesco,” Toft was quoted by The Times as saying.

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