RNS Number:1803T
Office of Fair Trading
11 December 2003






169/03                                                          11 December 2003




                     OFT TO APPEAL MERGER REFERENCE JUDGMENT



The OFT has today asked the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) for permission to
appeal to the Court of Appeal the judgment of the CAT in IBA Health v Office of
Fair Trading. This judgment quashed the decision of the OFT not to refer to the
Competition Commission the proposed acquisition of Torex plc by iSOFT plc.

The OFT's application is founded on the basis that the CAT's judgment contains
two broad errors of law:

a        that the CAT has wrongly interpreted the Enterprise Act test for
         reference of mergers to the Competition Commission;  and

b        that the CAT has also erred in its understanding of the nature and
         scope of judicial review of OFT merger decisions.

The OFT has asked for its application to be dealt with expeditiously given the
number of current OFT merger cases, and the broader public interest in resolving
the commercial and legal uncertainty that now exists.

Pending the outcome of the appeal process, the OFT will apply the CAT's
interpretation of the statutory test for reference of mergers to the Competition
Commission, as stated in our press statement of Friday 5 December (see PN 164/
03).




PUBLIC enquiries: 0845 7224499            enquiries@oft.gov.uk

OFT reports and consumer information leaflets are available free from:

OFT, PO Box 366, Hayes UB3 1XB   0870 6060321 oft@eclogistics.co.uk





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