Statutory Instruments
1996 No. 348

RESTRICTIVE TRADE PRACTICES
The Restrictive Trade Practices (Non-notifiable Agreements) (Turnover Threshold) Order 1996

Made
19th February 1996

Laid before Parliament
20th February 1996

Coming into force
19th March 1996

The Secretary of State, in exercise of the power conferred upon him by section 27A of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1976(1), hereby makes the following Order:—

Title and commencement

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Restrictive Trade Practices (Non-notifiable Agreements) (Turnover Threshold) Order 1996.

(2) This Order shall come into force on 19th March 1996 and shall apply to agreements made on or after that date.

Interpretation

2.  In this Order—

“the Act” means the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1976;

“relevant period” has the meaning set out in paragraph 1 of the Schedule; and

“turnover in the United Kingdom” has the meaning set out in paragraph 2 of the Schedule.

Description of non-notifiable agreement

3.—(1) For the purposes of section 27A of the Act, and subject to the provisions of that section, an agreement is a non-notifiable agreement if the parties to it are persons whose aggregate relevant annual turnover in the United Kingdom does not exceed £20 million on the date on which it is made.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1) above the relevant annual turnover in the United Kingdom of a person party to an agreement shall include the relevant annual turnover in the United Kingdom of any person which on the date the agreement is made is a member of the same group of interconnected bodies corporate as that party.

(3) For the purposes of this article, the relevant annual turnover in the United Kingdom of a person in any particular case is—

(a)where the relevant period equals twelve months, the turnover in the United Kingdom of that person during that period, and

(b)where the relevant period does not equal twelve months, the amount which bears the same proportion to the turnover in the United Kingdom of that person during that period as twelve months does to that period.

(4) In relation to an agreement to which the Act—

(a)has effect by virtue of section 8 of the Act as if it were an agreement between members of a trade association, or persons represented on the trade association by such members;

(b)has effect by virtue of section 16 of the Act as if it were an agreement between members of a services supply association, or persons represented on the services supply association by such members;

references in this article to the parties to an agreement include references to those members or persons.

John Taylor,
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Competition and Consumer Affairs,
Department of Trade and Industry
19th February 1996

Article 2
SCHEDULE

1.  “Relevant period” means in relation to any particular person—

(a)where that person has, within the two years ending immediately before the date on which the agreement in question was made, completed an accounting period of more than six months, the last such period so completed, or

(b)where that person has not completed such a period but has, within the six months ending immediately before the date on which the agreement in question was made, completed an accounting period of six months or less, so much of the period of twelve months ending on the last day of the last such period to be completed as during which that person was carrying on a business of supplying goods or services in the United Kingdom or otherwise carrying on business in the United Kingdom, or

(c)in any other case, so much of the period of twelve months ending immediately before the date on which the agreement in question was made as during which that person was carrying on a business of supplying goods or services in the United Kingdom or otherwise carrying on business in the United Kingdom.

2.  “Turnover in the United Kingdom” during any particular period means the total amount charged for the supply of goods and services in the United Kingdom during that period in the ordinary course of a person’s business, after deduction—

(a)of trade discounts, rebates and other allowances;

(b)of Value Added Tax and other taxes related directly to turnover; and

(c)of any amount charged for any such supply where both the person supplying the goods or services and the person to whom they were supplied were members of one and the same group of interconnected bodies corporate at the time of the supply:

Provided that in a case in which the total amount of revenue receivable by a person during any particular period in the ordinary course of his business in the United Kingdom, after deduction—

(i)of amounts receivable in respect of the supply by him of goods or services;

(ii)of trade discounts, rebates and other allowances;

(iii)of Value Added Tax and other taxes directly related to turnover; and

(iv)of any amount receivable from any other person where both he and that other person were members of one and the same group of interconnected bodies corporate when payment fell due,

equals one third or more of the total amount charged for the supply of goods and services in the United Kingdom during the said period in the ordinary course of his business, after the deductions mentioned in sub-paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) above, “turnover in the United Kingdom”during that period means the aggregate of the two said total amounts after the above mentioned respective deductions.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order specifies a description of a non-notifiable agreement for the purposes of section 27A of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1976. A non-notifiable agreement is an agreement which is registrable under the Act but of which particulars do not have to be furnished to the Director General of Fair Trading unless he requires them by serving a notice on the parties. This Order provides that an agreement to which the parties are persons whose aggregate annual turnover in the United Kingdom does not exceed £20 million on the date on which the agreement is made is a non-notifiable agreement. The Order contains detailed provisions as to how turnover is to be calculated. Section 27A provides that price fixing agreements and agreements of which particulars have been entered on the register of restrictive trading agreements are not non-notifiable agreements. This Order applies to agreements made on or after the date on which it comes into force.

(1)
1976 c. 34; section 27A was inserted by section 10 of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 (c. 40).