OFT Clears ITV Sales Houses Of Unfair Practice

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has decided not to conduct a formal competition inquiry into the practices of ITV sales houses. The possibility of an inquiry was raised following concerns that ITV may have been acting anti-competitively (see OFT Seeks Industry Response To ITV Sales Practice).

Concern had been expressed within the industry, and particularly from ad consultancy group Billett’s (see ITV Sales Policy: There May Be Trouble Ahead), that ITV’s decision to trade airtime on share of total broadcast spend could allow ITV to dictate prices. However, the OFT says that it has found no evidence to support this claim and will therefore not be conducting an inquiry.

It says that only one complaint about the discount policy was received despite extensive press coverage of the issue. It is to continue to monitor developments.

Office of Fair Trading: 0171 211 8000