Glover: 'We would've had notice of Tesco-Shoprite deal if legislation was in place'

Tuesday, 5 December 2023 15:51

New OFT chair asks for feedback on Competitions Act's secondary legislation

The new chair of the Office of Fair Trading says new competition legislation may not have had any impact on Tesco's takeover of Shoprite.

But Tim Glover has told Manx Radio it could have meant government had notice of what the retailers were planning.

The OFT has launched a consultation asking for feedback on secondary legislation for the Competition Act.

In essence, the body wants to implement harsher rules to prevent anti-competitive practices and allow time to investigate proposed mergers.

The main points that the legislation hopes to make provision for are:

the procedure for investigations into suspected anti-competitive practices or markets that appear to be malfunctioning,
the methodology to be applied in fixing penalties and restitution following such investigations,
merger notification thresholds,
the procedure for hearings in cases where the OFT believes that the parties to a merger were under a duty to notify of it of that merger but failed to do so,
the procedure for investigations into proposed mergers.

The act came into effect in 2021 and was given Royal Assent in the same year.

Mr Glover says even if the law was in place at the time of the takeover it may not have changed the outcome:

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