Legislation, guidelines, publications, speeches and templates

The OFT publishes a range of material giving details about the merger procedures.

Documents are available as Adobe Acrobat files, for which you will need a copy of the Acrobat Reader software. This can be downloaded free from the Adobe website.

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Legislation

Download Overview of Enterprise Act (138 kb)
A guide giving an overview of the competition and consumer provisions of the Act.

Enterprise Act
Link to the Act on the OPSI site.

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Guidance

March 2013 The OFT’s role in reviewing NHS mergers - Frequently Asked Questions (pdf 167kb)

August 2012  Merger fees (66kb) A leaflet detailing the fees payable for mergers qualifying for investigation.

December 2010 

• Exceptions to the duty to refer and undertakings in lieu of reference guidance (779kb)
• Exceptions to the duty to refer and undertakings in lieu of reference guidance -  Summary of responses to draft guidance consultation document (279kb)
• Merger notice (pdf 184kb) This merger notice is to be used for notifying the OFT of proposed mergers that will not be completed before expiry of the consideration period. Please note that merger submissions cannot yet be made electronically, and faxed submissions cannot be accepted.
• Memorandum of Understanding (pdf 44.6kb) Memorandum of understanding between the Office of Fair Trading and Ofcom, the Independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, on the use of Local Media Assessments in local media mergers.

September 2010 Merger Assessment Guidelines (710kb).

February 2009 Memorandum of understanding (110kb) Memorandum of understanding between the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission on the variation and termination of merger, monopoly and market undertakings and orders under the Fair Trading Act 1973 and the Enterprise Act 2002.

June 2009 Mergers - jurisdictional and procedural guidance June 2009 (1.97Mb)

JUne 2003 Prior notice of publicly proposed merger (pdf 100kb) A leaflet explaining the provisions of the Enterprise Act for giving prior notice of proposed mergers.

See also:

• Mergers - procedure
• Historic guidance

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Publications

November 2011 Best practices on co-operation between EU national competition authorities in merger investigations

April 2011 Good practice in the design and presentation of consumer survey evidence in merger inquiries (314kb) and the Summary of responses (261kb)

25 March 2011 A quick guide to UK merger assessment (462kb) a joint guide by the OFT and the Competition Commission.

17 March 2011 Commentary on retail mergers - a joint report by the OFT and the Competition Commission (OFT1305/CC2 V1a) (345kb) (Please note that this document was revised on 8 April 2011)

June 2009 Download Review of the local and regional media merger regime (594kb) - final report.

March 2009 Press release: OFT publishes discussion paper on review into local and regional media

March 2005 Ex post evaluation of mergers (519 kb) An ex post evaluation of a group of mergers between 1990 and 2002 that were referred to the Competition Commission and subsequently cleared.
 

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Presentations and speeches

20 March 2012 Some developments and controversies in unilateral effects analysis (pdf 966kb) (Chris Walters, Competiton Economics 2012)

23 February 2012 UK Merger Control: the regulator’s perspective (pdf 586kb) (Sheldon Mills, IBC UK Competition Law Conference)

25 May 2011 IPR, UPP, GUPPI: an 'alphabet soup' guide to merger assessment (ppt 288kb) (Dr Amelia Fletcher, Law Society Competition Section Annual Conference)

17 March 2011 The Great Guppi Debate: Topical Issues (215kb) (Dr Amelia Fletcher, BIICL conference)

17 February 2011 Joint OFT/CC Merger Guidelines: has anything changed? An OFT perspective (155kb) (Sheldon Mills, UK Competition Law 2011 Conference)

8 December 2010 UPP: Up and Away, The rising prevalence of pricing pressure indicators (308kb) (Dr Amelia Fletcher, CRA Brussels)

29 September 2010 Reading the UK MAGs: How do they compare? (316kb) (Dr Amelia Fletcher, GCR conference on international merger control)

8 June 2010 Mergers at OFT: Looking back, looking forward (122kb) (Dr Amelia Fletcher, Law Society) 

20 May 2010 Merger policy: Non-horizontal theories of harm (195kb) (Dr Chris Walters, Annual Conference of the Competition Section of the Law Society)

19 November 2009 Illustrative price rises in retail chain mergers (595kb) (Dr Chris Walters, Competition Law and Economics Conference)

11 December 2008 Under the radar, one-shot games and near-misses ... OFT merger process (pdf 59 kb) (Alastair Mordaunt, IBC - Annual UK Merger Control Conference)

13 November 2008  OFT merger remedies: The emergence of the up-front buyer (pdf 78 kb) (Alastair Mordaunt, BIICL - 7th Annual Merger Conference)

13 November 2008 Goldilocks in a bear market - The quest for the 'just right' balance in UK merger control (pdf 448 kb) (Simon Pritchard, BIICL - 7th Annual Merger Conference)

15 September 2008 OFT Merger Control - five years on, and an evolving style of review (pdf 124 kb) (Alastair Mordaunt, Law Society European Group)

5 July 2008 Approximating diversion ratios for retail chain mergers ( 229kb) (Dr Chris Walters, CRESSE Conference)

3 June 2008 Critical loss analysis using customer surveys (93kb) (Dr Chris Walters, Advanced Review of Competition Economics Conference)

10 September 2007 Caveat emptor...or, getting the deal stuck (pdf 113 kb) (Simon Pritchard, Law Society European Group)

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Templates

Download Enquiry letter (pdf 76 kb)
This letter is used by the OFT when seeking information about a merger that has been drawn to its attention other than by the parties to the merger. It is also a useful starting point for parties preparing their own informal submissions. 

Initial undertakings template (Word 76 kb).

Back to: Mergers