Solicitors say the Competition and Appeal Tribunal’s backing this week of the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) decision not to refer the Boots/Alliance UniChem merger deal to a full Competition Commission investigation confirmed the OFT’s wide margin of discretion on such references.
The tribunal dismissed Celesio’s request for UK regulators to take another look at the merger.
One solicitor said the tribunal’s decision re-established the importance of OFT investigations as a first-stage review.
References: Financial Times 11/05/06 page 4, page 44 (FT Markets – London), The Times 11/05/06 page 47 (The day’s biggest movers), page 57 (Large Caps), The Daily Telegraph 11/05/06 page B6 (DataBase), page B7 (T
