Slaughter and May advised Daily Mail and General Trust plc in relation to the CMA’s and Ofcom’s review of the acquisition by dmg media of the ‘i’ UK national newspaper and website

Slaughter and May advised Daily Mail and General Trust plc in relation to the CMA’s and Ofcom’s review of the acquisition by dmg media of the ‘i’ UK national newspaper and website.

The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport issued a Public Interest Intervention Notice (PIIN) in respect of the transaction. The PIIN required the CMA to report to the Secretary of State on jurisdictional and competition matters and for Ofcom to report on the media plurality public interest consideration specified by the Secretary of State in the PIIN.

The CMA’s report found that the transaction did not give rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition in any market and the Ofcom report did not find any plurality concerns. The Secretary of State accepted these findings and accordingly remitted the transaction back to the CMA. The CMA cleared the transaction unconditionally on 27 March 2020.