As the MPs' inquiry into the pub companies approaches its final stages, the pubcos have been given a clean bill of health by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
John Vickers, OFT chairman, told the final evidence session of the Trade & Industry Select Committee inquiry the OFT had no plans to launch a new investigation into the pubcos, as they met none of its criteria for examining firms under competition law.
Explaining why it rejected a bid from the Federation of Small Businesses for an inquiry in March 2003, Mr Vickers said there was no evidence of anti-competitive practices among the pubcos. "If there is collusion and anti-competitive agreements we would love to have some evidence of it - but we don't," he said.
Speaking at the session on September 8, Mr Vickers called on people in the trade to come forward if they had any proof of such practices. "This is a moving picture and we would be particularly keen to see any evidence. The industry continues to change."
Christiane Kent, director of the OFT's consumer goods division, described why the pubcos could not be accused of "abusing a dominant market position". "A dominant position is one where one company has a 40 per cent market share, and we are nowhere near that with the pubcos - even if you add up the top six companies, you do not reach 40 per cent," she said.
Mr Vickers added that he was in overall support of the beer tie as there was now "typically more beer on offer to consumers, which has other benefits".
Committee chairman Martin O'Neill, Labour MP for Ochill, has asked the OFT to provide more written evidence on distribution and pricing in the pub industry before the inquiry reaches its conclusion.