Monopolies and Mergers Act 1965

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1965 c. 50


Monopolies and MergersAct 1965

1965 CHAPTER 50

An Act to make further provision for the constitution and proceedings of the Monopolies Commission, for the matters dealt with by the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices (Inquiry and Control) Act 1948 and related matters and for preventing or remedying mischiefs that may result from mergers of businesses or similar transactions, and for purposes connected therewith.

[5th August 1965]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

The Monopolies Commission

The Monopolies Commission

S-1 Provisions for enlarging Commission and otherwise expediting its work.

1 Provisions for enlarging Commission and otherwise expediting its work.

(1) The constitution of the Monopolies Commission, the discharge of its functions and other matters dealt with in Schedule 1 to this Act shall be governed by the provisions there set out, being provisions which reproduce, with the modifications mentioned below, the effect of section 1 of the principal Act and the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission Act 1953 , as they would operate if section 28 of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1956 had not been passed.

(2) The modifications above referred to are modifications for the following purposes:—

(a ) to preserve the name ‘Monopolies Commission’;

(b ) to allow an increase in the maximum number of members;

(c ) to allow for the re-appointment of past or retiring members, without limiting their total term of office;

(d ) to allow for the appointment of additional members for particular references.

(3) A reference of a matter to the Commission under section 2 of the principal Act may (so far as relates to the conditions to be taken into account) be so framed as to exclude from consideration, or to limit consideration to, conditions which prevail or may prevail by virtue of arrangements or practices, or any specified arrangements or practices, falling within section 3(2) or 5(2) or (3) of that Act (which relate to arrangements and practices preventing or restricting competition), whether or not the reference is also so framed as to limit the investigation and report to the facts.

(4) If a person makes default in complying with a notice under section 8(3) of the principal Act (under which the Commission may require the attendance of witnesses or production of documents etc.) the court may, on the application of the Board of Trade, make such order as the court thinks fit for requiring the default to be made good; and any such order may provide that all the costs of and incidental to the application shall be borne by the person in default or by any officers of a company or other association who are responsible for its default.

Amendments relating to monopoly situations

Amendments relating to monopoly situations

S-2 Extension of principal Act in relation to supply of services.

2 Extension of principal Act in relation to supply of services.

(1) Section 2(1)(b ) of the principal Act (which authorises references to the Commission about the application of any process to goods of any description) shall extend also to the supply of services of any other description; and for this purpose ‘the supply of services’ shall include the undertaking and performance by way of business of engagements for any matter other than the supply of goods and shall include both the rendering of services to order and the provision of services by making them available to potential users, but shall not include the rendering of services under a contract of service.

(2) Accordingly in the provisions of the principal Act other than the said section 2(1)(b ) and sections 3 to 5 (which define, in relation to the several types of reference to the Commission, the conditions to which the Act applies)—

(a ) for any reference to the application of a process to goods of any description there shall be substituted a reference to the supply of services of any description; and

(b ) the expression ‘goods’, where it is used of the goods to which a reference or potential reference to the Commission relates or might relate, shall include services.

(3) Section 4 of the principal Act shall cease to have effect, and for the purposes of that Act conditions to which that Act applies shall be deemed to prevail as respects the supply of services of any description if either—

(a ) the supply of services of that description in the United Kingdom or any substantial part thereof is, to the extent of at least one-third, by or for any one person, or by or for any two or more persons being interconnected bodies corporate, or by or for any such two or more persons as are described in subsection (4) below; or

(b ) any agreements or arrangements (whether legally enforceable or not) are in operation the result of which is that, in the United Kingdom or any substantial part thereof, services of that description are not supplied at all;

and accordingly section 20(3) of the principal Act (which gives the Board of Trade and the Commission a discretion as to the criteria to be applied in estimating quantities of goods supplied, processed or produced) shall have effect in relation to services supplied as it has effect in relation to goods supplied.

(4) The two or more persons referred to in subsection (3)(a ) above are any two or more persons who, whether voluntarily or not, and whether by agreement or arrangement or not, so conduct their respective affairs as in any way to prevent or restrict competition in connection with the supply of services of the description in question (whether or not they themselves are affected by the competition and whether the competition is between persons interested as persons by whom, or as persons for whom, services are supplied):

Provided that, in considering whether or not any two or more persons so conduct their affairs as aforesaid, practices as to the workers to be employed or not to be employed by them or as to the remuneration, conditions of employment, hours of work or working conditions of workers, or any class of workers, so employed shall be left out of account.

(5) For purposes of this section—

(a ) services may, in such cases and to such extent as the Board of Trade or the Commission think appropriate in the circumstances, be treated as supplied at any place at which the person supplying them has a place of business, or from which the relevant activities are controlled, or in which the body corporate supplying them is incorporated, and may be so treated whether or not they would otherwise be regarded as supplied in the United Kingdom; and

(b ) section 3(3) of the principal Act (which enables different forms of supply of goods to be considered separately or in separate groups) shall have effect in relation to services and to subsections (3) and (4) above as it has effect in relation to goods and to subsections (1) and (2) of that section; and

(c ) section 1(3) of this Act shall have effect in relation to subsection (4) above as it has effect in relation to section 3(2) of the principal Act.

S-3 Powers for Board of Trade in relation to monopoly situations.

3 Powers for Board of Trade in relation to monopoly situations.

(1) In the circumstances described in section 10(1) of the principal Act as amended by the next following subsection, the Board of Trade, for the purpose of remedying or preventing any mischiefs which in their opinion result or may be expected to result from the conditions or things which, according to the report of the Commission as laid before Parliament, operate or may be expected to operate against the public interest, may by order (whatever the recommendation, if any, made by the Commission) exercise all or any of the powers conferred by subsections (3) to (7) below.

The powers exercisable by the Board of Trade under this section shall, with the exception of those conferred by subsections (6) and (7), be exercisable notwithstanding that the Commission's report was made before the commencement of this Act, and shall replace the powers exercisable by competent authorities (including the Board) under section 10(2) of the principal Act; and accordingly, for any reference elsewhere in the principal Act to a competent authority, there shall (except as respects things done before the commencement of this Act) be substituted a reference to the Board, and sections 10(3) to (6) and 11 of the principal Act (which contain general provisions about the contents, amendment and enforcement of orders under section 10) shall apply as well to orders under this section.

(2) Section 10(1)(e )(ii) of the principal Act (which enables orders under section 10 to be made on the authority of a resolution of the Commons House of Parliament) shall cease to have effect.

(3) The Board may do all or any of the following things (formerly authorised by section 10(2)(a ), (b ), (c ) and (e ) of the principal Act) that is to say—

(a ) declare it to be unlawful, except to such extent and in such circumstances as may be provided by or under the order, to make or to carry out any such agreements or arrangements as may be specified or described in the order, but not including any agreement which, if in force, would be an agreement to which Part I of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1956 applies;

(b ) require any party to any such agreement or arrangements as may be so specified or described, except any agreement to which the said Part I applies, to determine the agreement or arrangements within such time as may be so specified, either wholly or to such extent as may be so specified;

(c ) declare it to be unlawful, except to such extent and in such circumstances as may be provided by or under the order, to withhold or agree to withhold or threaten to withhold, or to procure others to withhold or agree...

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