Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994

8 Newspaper mergers: meaning of “newspaper proprietor” etc.

(1) Section 57 of the [1973 c. 41.] Fair Trading Act 1973 shall be amended as follows.

(2) In subsection (1) (which defines “newspaper proprietor” and explains references to the newspapers of a newspaper proprietor) for the words from the beginning of paragraph (b) to the end of the subsection there shall be substituted—

“(b) “newspaper proprietor” includes (in addition to an actual proprietor of a newspaper) any member of a group of persons of which another member is an actual proprietor of a newspaper.

(1A) In this Part of this Act, any reference to the newspapers of a newspaper proprietor (“NP”) is to—

(a) all newspapers of which NP is an actual proprietor, and

(b) all newspapers of which a member of a group of persons of which NP is a member is an actual proprietor.”

(3) In subsection (2) (definition of “transfer of a newspaper or of newspaper assets”) in paragraph (a), for “, a newspaper proprietor in relation to a newspaper;” there shall be substituted “—

(i) an actual proprietor of a newspaper, or

(ii) a person with a primary or secondary controlling interest in an actual proprietor of a newspaper;”.

(4) In subsection (4) (definition of “controlling interest”) before “controlling” there shall be inserted “primary”.

(5) After that subsection there shall be inserted—

“(5) For the purposes of this section a person (“A”) has a secondary controlling interest in a body corporate (“B”) if, without having a primary controlling interest in B—

(a) A has a primary controlling interest in a body corporate which has a primary controlling interest in B, or

(b) A is connected to B by a chain of any number of other bodies corporate, in the first of which A has a primary controlling interest, in the second of which the first has a primary controlling interest, and so on, the last such body corporate having a primary controlling interest in B.

(6) For the purposes of this section a group of persons consists of any number of persons of whom the first is—

(a) a person other than a body corporate, or

(b) a body corporate in which no other person has a primary controlling interest,

and the others are the bodies corporate in which the first has a primary or secondary controlling interest.

(7) In determining for the purposes of subsection (6)(b) of this section whether a body corporate (“X”) is one in which another person has a primary controlling interest, there shall be disregarded any body corporate in which X has a primary or secondary controlling interest.”

(6) Subsections (1) to (5) above shall be deemed always to have had effect.

(7) Section 8 of the [1965 c. 50.] Monopolies and Mergers Act 1965 shall be deemed never to have applied to a transaction to which it would not have applied had there been in force at the time of the transaction amendments of that Act corresponding to the amendments of the [1973 c. 41.] Fair Trading Act 1973 made by this section.