European Retail: Equal Pay risk for UK Retail Sector (Part II)

Research evidence excerpt

European Retail: Equal Pay risk for UK Retail Sector (Part II)

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European Retail

Equal Pay risk for UK Retail Sector (Part II)

Industry Overview

Sector-wide risk unravelling 02 July 2026

UK retail sector is currently facing an unprecedented wave of Equal Pay class actions. High Grade Credit

Led primarily by law firm Leigh Day, the “Equal Pay Now” campaign claims to Europe

encompass 120,000 current and former employees across Tesco, Sansbury’s, Asda, Retail

Morrisons, Next and Co-op. Leigh Day claims the combined liability to the sector could Mark Xu, CFA

amount up to £8bn. Next lost final stage (Phase 3) ruling in Aug-24 and is currently in Research Analyst

the process of an appeal, while Tesco, Asda, Morrisons are now entering Phase 3 BofASE+33 1 8770(France)0863

hearing. We summarise Equal Pay risk exposure and current status by retailer for the mark.xu2@bofa.com

sector. Conor Forde

Research Analyst

MLI (UK)

+44 20 7996 1054Overly pessimistic headline impact?

conor.forde@bofa.com

Based on press reported figures, the biggest potential impact seems to sit with Tesco at

Alex McBride

headline £2.5bn, followed by Asda (£1.2bn), and Morrisons (£1bn). Though we cannot Research Analyst

know or predict the final outcomes at this stage, we assume a material gap likely exists MLI (UK)

+44 20 7996 1007

between potential impact headline numbers circulated in the media vs actual impacts. alex.mcbride@bofa.com

This is based largely on our attempts to back solve how Asda potential impact of £1.2bn

and £400m were calculated by the claimants’ lawyers. We concluded both numbers are

likely derived from multiple variables all concurrently held at maximum levels (for details

see Demystifying £1.2bn Equal Pay: Part I). We also note headline numbers circulating