The Communications Act received Royal Assent on 17 July 2003. The Act contains a wide range of measures covering areas such as electronic communications, media ownership and newspaper and media mergers. The aim of the Act is to simplify the regulatory regime and keep it flexible enough to accommodate future change. The key changes are briefly set out below. Implementation of the measures contained in the Act will be subject to commencement orders. The part which deals with the regulation of electronic communications networks and services, came into force on 25 July 2003, in order to meet the national implementation deadline set out in the EU Communications Directives.
OFCOM
The functions of the existing five regulators for telecommunications and broadcasting (the ITC, Oftel, the Radio Authority, the Radiocommunications Agency and the Broadcasting Standards Commission) are transferred to a single new regulator, the Office for Communications (OFCOM). OFCOM will have concurrent powers with the OFT under both the Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002 in respect of communication matters. Although Oftel already had concurrent powers under the Competition Act 1998, this was not the case for the other regulators. The Act also introduces a new right of appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) for competition based decisions under the Broadcasting Act. The provisions in the Communications Act relating to the new regulator are expected to come into force on 18 September 2003.
Electronic Communications networks and services
The new Act incorporates into UK law the new EU Directives that overhaul the regulation of electronic communications. The requirement for licensing of telecommunications systems is removed (thereby removing about 400 licences) and replaced with a new, simpler regulatory regime for electronic communications networks and services. The Act also introduces new provisions on the use of the radio spectrum. All provisions relating to electronic communications networks and services came into force on 25 July 2003.
Media Ownership and control
The current rules on media ownership contained in the Broadcasting Act 1990 are either abolished or relaxed. Provisions restricting the ownership of broadcasting licences by persons not resident or established in the EEA are abolished and other restrictions on ownership by religious bodies and local authorities are being relaxed. Specific cross-media regulation will cover the joint ownership of newspapers and Channel 3 and joint ownership of local radio and local newspapers.
Newspaper and media mergers
The special newspaper merger regime of the Fair Trading Act 1973 is repealed and newspaper mergers will be subject to the normal merger control regime of the Enterprise Act. The Secretary of State will retain a degree of control through the issue of intervention notices. The public interest test of the Enterprise Act under which the Secretary of State can currently intervene in mergers which could raise issues of national security has been extended and includes public interest considerations in relation to newspaper mergers and other media mergers.
The special public interest cases (cases which do not meet the jurisdictional thresholds of the Enterprise Act but which do raise public interest issues) now also extend to newspaper or broadcasting mergers where one of the parties already has a 25% market share (and the transaction would not result in any overlap).
These provisions are expected to come into force on 29 December 2003.
Article by Elizabeth McKnight, Stephen Wisking and Veronica Roberts