The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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Time Out urges OFT LP enquiry

09.06.08

Time Out is urging the Office of Fair Trading to launch an investigation into the BBC’s acquisition of the travelguide publisher Lonely Planet, according to the Sunday Times.

It has written to the OFT, claiming the transaction breaches the BBC’s fair-trading policy and competition law.

In the letter, seen by the newspaper, Time Out founder Tony Elliott says he fears that the BBC will provide Lonely Planet with “an inexhaustible fund of factual, technical and editorial information and expertise quite beyond the resources of any privately funded organisation such as Time Out”.

BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s money-making arm, acquired 75% of Lonely Planet from founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler for £75m in October.

Time Out is angry at the lack of detail over how Lonely Planet will trade with the BBC, which is supposed to be at arm’s length and under fair-pricing controls.

The letter adds: “The BBC’s Fair Trading Guidelines require all transactions . . . to be based on formal agreements which must be transparent. However, these are not available and from the announcements at the time of the acquisition apparently none are contemplated.”

According to the Sunday Times, the OFT will consider whether to launch a probe before commenting publicly.

Sunday Times

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