Leading authors have called on Tesco to drop its "grossly disproportionate" libel actions against critics in Thailand who have questioned the growth of the supermarket chain. Nick Hornby, Mark Haddon, and fellow authors criticised Tesco for resorting to "deeply chilling" lawsuits to silence the critics, one of whom could be jailed for two years…[A] Tesco spokesman said: "It is very regrettable that we have had to take legal action in Thailand...These cases are framed in a way appropriate under Thai law but what we want is an apology and a retraction of claims which were false, damaging to our reputation and misleading to our Thai customers and staff. "We are still hopeful that these apologies will be forthcoming and that the matters can be resolved by agreement, without the need to resort to the courts."