Broadcasting Act 1990

Report by Director on reference under s. 39

1 (1) Where any reference is made to the Director General of Fair Trading (“the Director”) under section 39(12)(a), it shall be the duty of the Director—

(a) to publish a notice of the reference, together with a description of the arrangements to which it relates, in such manner as he considers most suitable for bringing it to the attention of persons who, in his opinion, would be affected by or be likely to have an interest in it;

(b) to consider whether those arrangements satisfy the competition test in accordance with paragraph 2; and

(c) to make a report on those arrangements within the period of six months beginning with the date of publication of the notice referred to in paragraph (a).

(2) If, while the Director is proceeding with any such reference, he is informed in accordance with section 39(12)(b) of this Act of any modification to the arrangements in question, he may, if he thinks fit, treat the reference as varied so far as is necessary to take account of the modification; and, if he does so, references to those arrangements in sub-paragraph (1)(b) and (c) shall accordingly be construed as references to those arrangements as modified.

(3) The Director’s report on any arrangements shall contain his conclusions on the question whether the arrangements satisfy the competition test and may contain such an account of his reasons for those conclusions as is, in his opinion, expedient for facilitating a proper understanding of those conclusions.

(4) If those conclusions are to the effect that the arrangements do not satisfy the competition test, the report shall specify the modifications which the Director considers would, if incorporated in the arrangements, result in them satisfying that test.

(5) Subsections (6) and (7) of section 186 of this Act shall have effect in relation to any report made by the Director under this paragraph as they have effect in relation to any report made by him under that section.

(6) The Director shall send a copy of any report made by him under this paragraph to the Commission and to every holder of a regional Channel 3 licence.