Further submission following the report by the Competition Commission (CC) on the proposed merger of Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc

No. ME/1645/02

A report under section 125(4) of the Fair Trading Act 1973 of the Chairman's advice dated 7 November 2003, to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry under section 88(2) of the Act

Please note that the full text of the decision can be downloaded by using the link on the right. What follows are extracts from the advice regarding the background and the conclusion.

In this submission the Office of Fair Trading advises under section 88(2) of the Fair Trading Act 1973 (the Act) on the outcome of the negotiations with Granada plc (Granada) and Carlton Communications plc (Carlton).

BACKGROUND

The background details of the reference to the Competition Commission (CC) and its subsequent conclusions and recommendations were set out in the OFT's advice of 18 September. You announced on 7 October that you had accepted the conclusions and recommendations of the CC. Your officials wrote requesting the OFT, in concert with the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and Office of Communications (Ofcom), to seek certain undertakings from both Carlton and Granada and, in doing so, to have regard to the concerns raised in the OFT's 18 September advice concerning detailed implementation of the CRR remedy. On 27 October we published a draft set of undertakings for consultation.

CONCLUSION

The undertakings that you asked the OFT to seek have therefore been obtained.  The OFT recommends that, if you accept the attached undertakings, they be published in accordance with s88(2A) of the Act in due course.

See previous OFT advice on this case
27 March 2003
7 October 2003

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