Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to his Department’s invitation to comment on a request to accept undertakings in place of conditions relating News Corp UK and Ireland Limited’s acquisition of The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers in 1981 published on 19 January 2019, whether the proposals submitted to his Department seek to vary the existing condition of a criminal offence if the undertakings are breached as currently stated under section 62 of the Fair Trading Act 1973.

The pre-2003 newspaper merger regime, set out in the Fair Trading Act 1973 (FTA 1973), including the criminal offence in section 62 of the FTA 1973 for breaches of conditions, was repealed in 2003. The regime was replaced by the regime set out in the Enterprise Act 2002 which allows the Secretary of State to intervene in certain newspaper and media merger cases that raise public interest concerns.

The Communications Act 2003 gives the Secretary of State powers to vary conditions by accepting new undertakings in place of the previous conditions. Where new undertakings are accepted, they are subject to the monitoring and enforcement provisions under the 2002 Enterprise Act in place of penalties under the FTA 1973. This enables the Secretary of State to make enforcement orders if they consider an undertaking has not been fulfilled, or will not be fulfilled.

If an enforcement order is not complied with the Secretary of State or the Competition and Markets Authority can bring proceedings for an injunction. If a party did not comply with an injunction this would amount to contempt of court, which can be punished by a fine or imprisonment.