Office of Fair Trading meets pubco chiefs
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has held a series of meetings with pub company chiefs in the wake of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) submitting a super-complaint.
The OFT has 90 days to respond to the Camra super-complaint. At the end of last week, the OFT held meetings in which it explained the information requests it would be sending out.
OFT executives also explained the deadlines for the return of information and that it may want to interview individual company executives at some stage.
The Morning Advertiser understands the OFT spent just under two hours with individuals as it set out the parameters of the information it wanted.
In an article to be published later this week by the Morning Advertiser, Mike Benner, chief executive of Camra, said: "The OFT has 90 days to respond to Camra's complaint. It looks increasingly unlikely that a 'clean bill of health' will be the outcome.
"Last week's announcement that the Government has brought forward its consultation on the revocation of the Land Agreements Exclusion Order 2004 is a key development.
"The fact that the Government has made clear that its preferred option is to repeal the Order as 'an anomaly in the modern competition regime' is a dramatic wake up call to anyone who thinks the Office of Fair Trading's consideration of CAMRA's super-complaint leaves the large pub owning companies with little to worry about.
"It is no longer business as usual for those who consider maximising short-term returns as more important than the long term success of Britain's pub and brewing industry."
