Competition Commission to investigate HMV book acquisition

Now that we're getting all business like, what with 'retail price indexes' and all that, a quick update on attempts by the HMV Group to take over independent book chain Ottakar. The Office Of Fair Trading has referred the merger to the Competition Commission, mainly because HMV already owns the dominant UK bookseller Waterstones, and there are fears in the book publishing industry that the merger would give HMV too dominant a position in the book selling sector. While the Office Of Fair Trading doesn't seem to completely agree with those that say the merger will damage the independent end of the book industry, they have recommended the competition commission investigate the merger proposals, partly because of the high number of consumer complaints they received from book lovers concerning what effect the merger will have on the supply of more independent titles.