Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, whether his department considered asking the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the consolidation of independent music distributors by major record companies based overseas.

As the UK’s independent competition authority, the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) investigates mergers that meet certain jurisdictional tests based on UK turnover or market share, as set out in the Enterprise Act 2002. The government has ensured that the CMA has significant powers and expertise to investigate the benefits and risks of mergers in relation to competition.