§ Mr. Archerasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will make a statement on the Report of the Monopolies Commission on the supply of electric lamps.
§ Mr. CroslandThe Report was published this morning. The Commission have found monopoly conditions, as defined in the legislation, in the supply of electric lamps. One supplier, British Lighting Industries Ltd., alone has more than one third of the market; and a much greater proportion of the market is held by four suppliers (British Lighting Industries Ltd., G.E.C. (Osram) Ltd., Philips Electronic and Associated Industries Ltd., and Crompton Parkinson Ltd.) who in certain respects conduct their respective affairs in ways which restrict competition.
The Commission have found the general performance of the industry to be satisfactory and the level of prices to be reasonable by international standards. They have not found that British Lighting Industries' monopoly position as such operates against the public interest. But they have criticised certain practices of two or more of the main manufacturers. In particular they have found to operate against the public interest the manufacturers' policies of recommending resale prices, of relating prices for individual buyers to the buyer's purchases from all suppliers, and of exchanging information on prices and sales. They have also found to be against the public interest the practice of three component manufacturers, which are subsidiaries of British Lighting Industries and Osram and each of which has a monopoly in its own field, of discriminating in price in favour of the parent companies.
By way of remedy the Commission have recommended that each of those practices should cease. In the case of price discrimination by the component 565W manufacturers, the Commission have recommended that the range of quantity terms which they give should be only such as can be justified by actual variations in costs, and that whatever scales of quantity discounts or rebates they apply should he submitted, together with evidence of cost justification, to the Board of Trade.
The Commission have conducted a thorough and useful investigation, and I accept in principle their conclusions. My Department will now discuss their implementation with the companies concerned.