Local World joint venture cleared by Office of Fair Trading
The Local World joint venture between Daily Mail & General Holdings, Trinity Mirror and Yattendon (Northcliffe Media and Lliffe News & Media) has been cleared by the Office of Fair Trading.
The venture was formed earlier this year, comprising over 180 local and regional newspapers and 60 websites, leading to the OFT looking at the overlap between the Yattendon print titles, mainly in Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
Data on advertising customers for both parties was provided in order to prove a lack of close competition for customers prior to the merger, leading to the OFT ruling that no price increase was likely as a result of the venture, nor would there be a reduction in choice of quality for either readers or advertisers.
Competition concerns were also considered by the OFT as to whether the 20 per cent stake held by Trinity Mirror in Local World might impact the publisher’s own titles or push up their prices. It was concluded that this would not be the case that that the publisher’s titles would benefit more from its stake in the venture.
Chris Walters, chief economist at the OFT explained that the parties involved provided enough evidence to allow for the conclusion to be drawn that no price increases or reduction in choice would result.
“We hope this case, alongside our other recent merger decisions in this sector, will assist any businesses considering future transactions in local newspaper markets, and help identify the evidence the OFT will find useful in assessing the impact on competition,” he added.
The investigation into the Local World formation was launched by the OFT in January.