Tesco Ireland yesterday accused a Director of Consumer Affairs (DCA) inspector of entrapment by using a discount voucher to calculate the price of a brand of beer for a below-cost selling prosecution.
The supermarket chain also claimed the inspector was not entitled to use a 10 per cent discount coupon for a €60 "shop" because it had been sent to his wife who was the only person entitled to use it.
The company yesterday successfully applied to seek a High Court ruling on the legal basis of the DCA prosecution on the grounds that it challenged entire coupon schemes which are widely used by supermarkets to attract shoppers.
Dublin District Court heard that in September 2003, DCA inspector Mr Michael McEneaney bought 36 cans of Budweiser which were marked on the shelf of Tesco, Ballymun, at €1.71 each. Using a €6 coupon, which was one of a number he had received at his home, he paid €55.56, or €1.54 per can.
He later visited Tesco's head office in Dún Laoghaire, where he examined the wholesale invoices for the beer and found that they had cost the supermarket €1.71.
Under cross-examination, Mr McEneaney agreed the coupon had been sent to his wife but said that when he made the purchase, the checkout operator never asked who it was for.
He disagreed it was "a form of entrapment" as he believed he was undertaking a standard type of purchase that any customer might make.
Ms Catherine Conroy, head of Tesco's Club Card scheme, said the coupon promotion was sent directly to Mr McEneaney's wife and it stated that the coupon could only be used by the person to whom it was addressed.
An examination of the Club Card data showed Mr McEneaney was the only customer to use the coupon to buy a single product. Everybody else had used it to discount the ordinary weekly shop of around 20 items. It was not intended the coupon should be used to discount a single item.