Factbox: Britain's Competition Commission probes Murdoch deal

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Monday referred a bid by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for UK broadcaster BSkyB to the Competition Commission (CC).

Below are some details about the Commission.

WHAT IS THE COMPETITION COMMISSION?

- An independent, public body that conducts in-depth inquiries into mergers, markets and the regulation of the major regulated industries;

- It is the top competition body in Britain, and its findings can only be challenged in court;

- Its brief is to ensure healthy competition between companies in the UK for the benefit of companies, customers and the economy;

- Commission inquiries are carried out following a reference by another authority, usually consumer watchdog the Office of Fair Trading, or a sector regulator;

- In exceptional cases where public interest issues are raised, the Secretary of State may also refer mergers to the Commission, as in the case of the News Corp/BSkyB bid.

STAFF

- Led by Chief Executive David Saunders, a civil service veteran of 33 years who earns an annual salary of about 143,000 pounds -- about the same as the Prime Minister;

- Saunders joined the Department for Industry in 1978. He was director of consumer and competition policy in the Department for Trade and Industry and subsequently Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform from 2004 until 2008, before moving to the new Department of Energy and Climate Change. He was appointed the Commission's CEO in 2009;

- Inquiry groups (see below) are usually led by the Commission's chairman Roger Witcomb or one of the deputy chairmen, Peter Davis or Laura Carstensen;

- Witcomb was appointed chairman in May this year. He was finance director of National Power from 1996 to 2000 and is a former BP executive. Davis, an economist, has been with the Commission since 2004. Carstensen, a former partner of law firm Slaughter & May, has been with the Commission since 2005.

POWERS

- The Commission has wide-ranging powers to remedy any competition concerns, including preventing a merger from going ahead;

- It can also require a company to sell off part of its business or take other steps to improve competition;

- In 2000, the Commission recommended disposals before it would allow any merger between two out of three independent broadcasters Carlton Communications, United News & Media and Granada;

- Murdoch has been at the wrong end of Commission findings in the past. In 2007 it found that BSkyB's purchase of a 17.9 percent share of ITV restricted competition and was therefore not in the public interest.

Following a protracted legal process that went to the Court of Appeal, BSkyB in 2010 sold a 10.4 percent stake in ITV, cutting its holding to 7.5 percent.

HOW DOES THE PROCESS WORK?

- Once a reference is made, normally a four or five member group of independent experts is selected from a wider panel of about 50 members to conduct the investigation. One of the experts acts as the group chairman, who has the casting vote;

- The Commission's remit is to reach its decision and publish its report within 24 weeks, with a possible extension of up to eight weeks;

- The investigation group gathers information by issuing questionnaires, conducting surveys, and hearing witnesses from the companies involved as well as third parties such as competitors, before publishing a statement of issues.

It will then consider responses to this statement before publishing its provisional findings. Possible remedies will be considered before a detailed final report is published;

- In the case of public interest deals, such as News Corp/BSkyB, the Commission makes final recommendations which the Secretary of State can choose to implement or ignore;

- Parties who are aggrieved by any decision of the Commission may apply to the Competition Appeal Tribunal for a judicial review of that decision.

CURRENT AND PREVIOUS CASES

- One of the biggest cases currently under investigation by the Commission is ownership of Britain's airports.

It has not shied away from radical remedies, finding that airport operator BAA, owned by Spain's Ferrovial, benefited from a complete absence of competition in some parts of the country. In March 2009 it ordered that BAA sell three airports, including Gatwick and Stansted.

Its decisions have been the subject of a prolonged legal tussle with BAA. The Commission has been considering the case since it was referred to the body by the OFT in March 2007. The OFT began its study of the UK airport sector in 2006;

- In 2000, under a previous regulatory regime, the Commission investigated the politically thorny issue of whether the sale of the Belfast Telegraph by Britain's Trinity Mirror to Irish newspaper magnate Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media (INM) was in the public interest.

"Given the sensitivities in Northern Ireland and the fact that INM is ultimately based in ... Ireland with a large shareholding in the hands of a prominent individual (O'Reilly), we saw it as inevitable that some people would have continuing suspicions," the CC said in its report.

"But we found no grounds for an expectation that the proposed transfers would prove a threat to accurate presentation of news and free expression of opinion."

(Reporting by James Davey and Paul Hoskins)