KEY POINTS:
Woolworths is evaluating a Commerce Commission suggestion that it re-apply to take over The Warehouse rather than pursue an old decision in the courts.
Woolworths and rival Foodstuffs were denied permission to take over The Warehouse by the commission. Woolworths applied on January 17, 2007. Its challenge has made it all the way to the Supreme Court. The Warehouse said this month it was closing its Warehouse Extra stores, which sell food as well as general merchandise.
The success or failure of the stores as a competitor to the two established supermarket giants was an issue in dispute in the court case.
In a submission in opposition to Woolworths' application for leave to appeal, the commission argues Woolworths should simply now re-apply to it.
"It is inappropriate for the appellate process to be turned into a sequence of rehearings, increasingly remote from the expert tribunal of origin and based each time on new facts," the commission said.
"The appropriate course, where there are truly new and relevant market facts, is for Woolworths to reapply for clearance so that the commission can consider the material that was not available to it at the time of the original clearance application."
Woolworths and Foodstuffs each own 10 per cent of The Warehouse and Stephen Tindall and family interests have 52 per cent.
- NZPA
