# The Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) Regulations 2025, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend the Enterprise Act 2002 (c. 40) (“the Act”) to create exceptions within the merger control regime in Chapter 3A of Part 3 of the Act, which prohibits foreign state newspaper merger situations. A foreign state newspaper merger situation is created where a merger involving a newspaper enterprise, which meets certain conditions as to turnover and share of supply, results in a foreign power being able to control or influence the policy of the person carrying on the newspaper enterprise, or being able to control or influence that policy to a greater extent.
Paragraph 1 of Schedule 6B to the Act provides that a foreign power is able to control or influence the policy of a person carrying on a newspaper enterprise if one or more of five conditions is met, including the conditions that a foreign power holds, directly or indirectly, any shares in the person (“the shares condition”) or any voting rights in the person (“the voting rights condition”).
Regulation 2 inserts Part 1A into Schedule 6B to the Act. Part 1A creates exceptions to the prohibition by providing that a foreign power is not able to control or influence the policy of a newspaper owner by virtue of the shares condition or the voting rights condition in certain circumstances. These are circumstances in which a foreign power holds shares or voting rights, indirectly, in a newspaper owner via a state owned investor acting on its behalf, and in which a foreign power holds shares or voting rights in a newspaper owner as a result of those shares or voting rights being held by a person associated with a foreign power within the meaning of section 127(a) to (c) of the Act.
Regulation 3 amends section 120(2)(b) of the Act in consequence of Chapter 3A of Part 3 of the Act.
Regulations 2 and 3 are to be treated as having come into force on 13 March 2024, in line with the coming into effect of Chapter 3A of Part 3 of the Act.
A full impact assessment of the effect of Chapter 3A of Part 3 of the Act, read with the exceptions created by this instrument, on the costs of business, the public sector and the voluntary sector has been prepared. A copy is available on www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-culture-media-and-sport. A hard copy can be obtained from the Department for Culture Media and Sport, 100 Parliament Street, London, SW1A 2BQ.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2025/9780348271959/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-enterprise-act-2002-mergers-involving-newspaper-enterprises-and-foreign-powers-regulations-2025/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.