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17 September 2002

COMPETITION COMMISSION CONSULTS ON NEW GUIDANCE

The Competition Commission today begins its formal consultation on the guidance it is required to publish about its new competition tests and procedures that will come into force when the Enterprise Bill becomes law.

Chairman Dr Derek Morris said:

"The Enterprise Bill, when enacted, will see the Commission become a fully independent decision making body, with new responsibilities and significant determinative powers.
The publication of its draft guidance and rules, for consultation with relevant bodies, provides a comprehensive picture of how the Commission will conduct its inquiries into mergers and markets in the new regime.

The new regime will have a number of new features.

- The Commission becomes the determinative body in merger and market inquiries: Ministers will no longer take the final decisions (unless issues of national security arise).

- On the basis of new competition- based tests the Commission will decide:

· in merger inquiries, whether the merger will bring about a substantial lessening of competition (SLC); and

· in market inquiries whether any feature of the market prevents, restricts or distorts competition.

- Where it finds a SLC in merger inquiries or an adverse effect on competition in market inquiries the Commission will decide and implement the action required to remedy it.

- The Commission will become more transparent in its procedures. For example, it is publishing extensive guidance for the first time. It will also routinely consult any persons or parties about decisions it proposes to take which are likely to have a substantial impact on them, that is, its findings on the competition tests and remedies. And it will publish provisional findings during the course of an inquiry.

- The Commission's decisions will be open to scrutiny on judicial review grounds by the Competition Appeal Tribunal which becomes a separate judicial body no longer part of the Commission.

The publication of provisional findings, consultation with parties about decisions which may affect them and an opportunity to discuss remedies I am sure will be particularly welcomed. These measures, together with the adoption of specific competition tests and the withdrawal of Ministers from decisions on merger and market inquiries will reduce uncertainty for business. A strong, transparent, competition regime will help to stimulate productivity and enterprise and bring real benefit to business, consumers and the economy."

There are five papers for consultation. They provide general advice and information on the responsibilities of the Commission; detailed explanation on the Commission's approach to the new merger and market tests; procedural rules for the conduct of merger and market investigations and the Commission's policy on the imposition of fines for late or non-provision of information.

The guidance is being circulated widely throughout the business, legal, financial and economist communities, consumer bodies, regulators and government departments.

The guidance is available on the Commission's website: www.competition-commission.org.uk

General comments on all the documents are invited. All responses should be in writing to:

Susan Maunsell
Competition Commission
New Court
48 Carey Street
London WC2A 2JT

Or via email to: enterprisebill@competition-commission.gsi.gov.uk

Deadline for comments: 10 December 2002.

Notes to Editors

1. Electronic copies of the guidance documents and a list of those consulted are available on line at www.competition-commission.org.uk.

2. The Competition Commission may make responses publicly available unless they are clearly marked confidential. If you do not wish your response or parts of it to be made public you should therefore indicate this clearly. The Commission intends to publish a statement on its response to the comments received as part of this consultation exercise: this statement will be available on the Commission's website at the beginning of February 2003. It will include the names of those persons or bodies who commented.

3. Enquiries should be directed to: Francis Royle, Press Officer Tel. 020 7271 0242.