Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Lord Cotter (Liberal Democrat), on Tuesday, 13 November 2001, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 291 members in total.

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COMPETITION IN THE NEWSPAPER DISTRIBUTION INDUSTRY

That this House notes with concern the contents of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents' Report, 'Ending anti-competitive practices in the national newspaper industry'; recognises the important role that independent retail newsagents play within our communities; further recognises that high carriage charges relating to newspaper distribution present a substantial threat to the viability of these small businesses; and urges The Office of Fair Trading to investigate whether high charges on carriage are a result of geographical monopolies operating between publishers and wholesalers by examining the agreements made between them under the terms of the Competition Act 1998 and to ensure, at the very least, that transparency applies to all such arrangements by making agreements subject to a fair and open bidding round.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

408 

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Competition Newspaper press Distributive trade Wholesale trade

Link

View this Early day motion on www.parliament.uk