Woolworths fined £350,000 by watchdog

Retailer Woolworths was fined £350,000 (€442,000) today after the group failed to tell the stock market about a share-price moving change to a major contract.

The fine, which relates to an incident in 2005, is the second biggest of its kind imposed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failure to disclose information to the market in a timely manner.

Woolworths did not reveal immediately in December 2005 that the terms of a Tesco supply contract for its subsidiary Entertainment UK were being changed, hitting its 2006/07 profits by £8m (€10m).

The FSA said the breach of rules was “unacceptable”, although Woolworths was found not to have acted deliberately.