According to Law360; software company TIBCO has accused Tesco of owing £86.8 million in outstanding payments. The source of TIBCO’s ire is the assertion that Tesco used more software units than they were entitled to under the licensing agreement in place.

As far back as 2005 TIBCO deployed their software at Tesco and provided ongoing support for Tesco’s website and operations but, during an audit carried out by PwC in 2020, the software provider discovered that Tesco had used more units than agreed under the license. 

As such TIBCO alleges that Tesco is in breach of the contract for over-deploying the software and for failing to pay the related sum of £86.6 million. In addition to the license discrepancy cost, TIBCO are also looking to recover the PwC audit cost amounting to £202,000.

Questions regarding the unauthorised use of the software, including details of the machines deploying the software units and whether Tesco’s cloud based servers also deployed the software have been posed to Tesco with TIBCO asking the court to order a response.

No further updates are available at this time and we will be listening with interest to see the outcome.