UK govt investigates GameStation acquisition
The Office of Fair Trading "looking into" the deal, deciding whether or not to refer to the Competition Commission.
By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UK
Posted Jun 1, 2007 5:10 pm GMT
The two biggest games retailers in the UK became one at the beginning of May when Game purchased GameStation for £74 million (approx $147 million). The deal brought the total number of shops operated by one company in the UK to 627, and 1,047 worldwide.
However, the UK's consumer and competition authority, the Office of Fair Trading, a government department that seeks to "promote and protect consumer interests," is now looking into the deal. If the OFT finds that the acquisition will "create competition issues," it could be referred to the Competition Commission (formerly known as the Monopolies and Mergers Commission). A deadline of June 14 has been set for invitations to comment.
The Office of Fair Trading was set up by statute in 1973, and enforces consumer protection and consumer laws within the UK. One of its main aims is to ensure "fair and healthy" competition across different sectors of the marketplace.
A spokesperson for the OFT pointed out that the organisation looked into all deals of this kind. He told GameSpot, "Pretty much every merger that goes through we look into for competition issues. We do this as a matter of course." He added that it was too early for the department to comment on this specific case except to say, "What happens next is we will be looking into the electronic gaming industry to see if the deal has any competition issues, and then we will either let it go ahead or refer accordingly."
A spokesperson for Game gave GameSpot the following statement: "As expected, we have notified our acquisition of GameStation to the OFT for normal regulatory review. This review will take about two months and we will be co-operating fully with the OFT's process."