OFT merger guidelines greeted positively.

Financial News, October, 2002

Byline: Michael Hoare

Lawyers have welcomed the new merger guidelines released for consultation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the UK competition regulator, saying they provide important clarity on some key issues.They say the OFT paper gives fairly specific guidance on topical issues such as the way the body will look at oligopolies, and how it will define the markets it considers.

The document suggests that the UK takes a similar approach to oligopolies to that outlined in a recent European court ruling, which defined three factors for measuring the impact of oligopolies: transparency, market power and the deterrents for breaking rank. Chris Watson, a partner in the antitrust group at law firm Allen & Overy, said: "It seems to take a European...

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