ABSTRACT
As noted above, the Competition Act 1998 did not introduce any change to merger control, the traditional public interest investigation system being retained under the 1973 Act. However, the DTI issued a Consultation Document on proposals for reform in August 1999167 and this has been followed by its October 2000 document, The Response to the Consultation on Proposals for Reform, which endorsed the main proposals in the earlier document.168 The 1999 document noted the key objectives of reform as being three-fold: (a) to enhance clarity, transparency and consistency; (b) to be more responsive to the needs of business and impose only the minimum necessary burdens; and (c) to ensure effective and proportionate control of mergers with harmful effects. The October 2000 document noted that response had been favourable on the two fundamental proposals in the 1999 consultation document: ‘…that Ministerial involvement in mergers decisions should be minimised and that the current public interest test should be replaced by a competition-based test,’169 In July 2001, the Government set out its legislative plans in its White Paper Productivity and Enterprise: A World Class Competition Regime.170 This further clarified the position that should appear in legislation. The main proposals for reform will now be summarised.
