Consultation on The Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) Regulations 2024
Technical consultation on draft regulations relating to the foreign state ownership of newspaper provisions in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill.
On 26 March 2024 the government brought forward amendments to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (the DMCC Bill) to create a new foreign state intervention (FSI) regime for newspapers and periodic news magazines. This new regime will ban foreign state ownership, control, or influence over newspapers and news magazines. We will be bringing forward regulations which will create targeted and specific exemptions for specific types of passive investment up to a low threshold. This technical consultation is intended to provide an opportunity for newspapers businesses and other interested stakeholders to comment on the draft regulations.
The consultation was due to close at 23:59 on 23 May. In view of the announcement on 22 May that a general election will take place on 4 July 2024, it will not now be possible to lay The Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) Regulations 2024 before Parliament is prorogued and then dissolved. We have therefore decided to extend the consultation until 23:59 on 9 July 2024 when the new Parliament will first meet, in order to allow more time for comments on the draft regulations to be submitted.