§ Mr. SternTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he has any plans to reconsider the acceptability of the net book agreement.
§ Mr. RedwoodI have no such plans. Under the relevant existing legislation, the review of arrangements such as the net book agreement is a matter for the restrictive practices court, on application by the Director General of Fair Trading.
After looking at the case for making an application, the director general concluded in August 1989 that the basis for doing so was insufficiently strong. Although there had been many changes in book publishing and retailing since the court originally upheld the agreement in 1962, he felt that they were unlikely to be of such magnitude as to lead the court to reverse its previous finding that the agreement does not operate against the public interest.
The director general also had in mind the proposals in the Government's White Paper "Opening Markets: New Policy on Restrictive Trade Practices" published in July 1989, under which agreements such as the NBA previously upheld by the court would be automatically reviewed against a new exemption test modelled on article 85(3) of the EEC treaty.