Clause 21 - Relevant merger situations
Enterprise Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 216, in page 13, line 6, at end add—
'(10) Notwithstanding the above, a relevant merger situation shall not be deemed to have arisen for the purposes of this Part if the transaction in question has no effects (either actual or potential) in the United Kingdom or any part of it.'.
Again, this is a probing amendment. I appreciate that a share of supply test will not be brought to bear. However, the turnover test remains at a fairly high level—£45 million. To prevent an excessive regulatory burden on UK businesses, we want to ensure that the OFT does not have the opportunity to spend the time and valuable resources of businesses reviewing mergers that have no impact in the UK. As the Minister pointed out, the asset test of £70 million and the turnover test of £45 million apply to world-wide
turnover. Therefore, in some cases—admittedly, it may be a relatively small number—there may be no impact whatever in the UK and we are keen to ensure that the companies involved would not find themselves falling foul of an immediate and automatic OFT inquiry. We propose that such transactions would not need to be notified in the same way.