Communications Act 2003

382 General information duties in relation to media mergers

(1) Section 105 of the Enterprise Act 2002 (general information duties of OFT and Competition Commission) shall be amended as follows.

(2) After subsection (1) there shall be inserted—

“(1A) Where OFCOM decide to investigate a matter so as to make a report under section 44A or 61A, they shall, so far as practicable, take such action as they consider appropriate to bring information about the investigation to the attention of those who they consider might be affected by the creation of the relevant merger situation concerned or (as the case may be) the special merger situation concerned.”

(3) In subsection (2) (exclusion for merger notices) for the words “Subsection (1) does” there shall be substituted “Subsections (1) and (1A) do”.

(4) In subsection (3) (duty of OFT to give requested assistance to Competition Commission)—

(a) after the word “Commission”, where it occurs for the first time, there shall be inserted “or OFCOM”; and

(b) after the word “Commission”, where it occurs for the second, third and fourth time, there shall be inserted “or (as the case may be) OFCOM”.

(5) After subsection (3) there shall be inserted—

“(3A) OFCOM shall give the Commission or the OFT—

(a) such information in their possession as the Commission or (as the case may be) the OFT may reasonably require to enable the Commission or (as the case may be) the OFT to carry out its functions under this Part; and

(b) any other assistance which the Commission or (as the case may be) the OFT may reasonably require for the purpose of assisting it in carrying out its functions under this Part and which it is within the power of OFCOM to give.”

(6) In subsection (4) (duty of OFT to give unrequested information to Competition Commission)—

(a) after the word “Commission”, where it occurs for the first time, there shall be inserted “or OFCOM”; and

(b) after the word “Commission”, where it occurs for the second and third time, there shall be inserted “or (as the case may be) OFCOM”.

(7) After subsection (4) there shall be inserted—

“(4A) OFCOM shall give the Commission or the OFT any information in their possession which has not been requested by the Commission or (as the case may be) the OFT but which, in the opinion of OFCOM, would be appropriate to give to the Commission or (as the case may be) the OFT for the purpose of assisting it in carrying out its functions under this Part.”

(8) In subsection (5) (duty of OFT and Competition Commission to give requested assistance to the Secretary of State) after the word “OFT”, in both places where it occurs, there shall be inserted “, OFCOM”.

(9) In subsection (6) (duty of OFT to give unrequested information to Secretary of State)—

(a) after the word “OFT”, where it occurs for the first time, there shall be inserted “and OFCOM”;

(b) for the word “its” there shall be substituted “their”; and

(c) after the word “OFT”, where it occurs for the second time, there shall be inserted “or (as the case may be) OFCOM”.

(10) In subsection (7) (duty to have regard to information given) for the words “or (4)” there shall be substituted “, (3A), (4) or (4A)”.

(11) After subsection (7) there shall be inserted—

“(7A) OFCOM shall have regard to any information given to them under subsection (3) or (4); and the OFT shall have regard to any information given to it under subsection (3A) or (4A).”