A BRITISH court has suspended a competition inquiry into Ryanair’s minority stake in rival airline Aer Lingus to allow an appeal against the investigation, Ryanair said yesterday.
Britain’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) last year started an investigation into whether Ryanair’s near 29.8 per cent holding in Aer Lingus gave it the power to influence the former State carrier’s commercial policy and hampered competition.
Ryanair challenged the OFT move, saying it no longer had jurisdiction over the deal, which was closed in 2006.
The UK Court of Appeal on Thursday ordered a stay of the OFT inquiry until after a full hearing scheduled for mid-2012, Ryanair said.
Last July, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled that the OFT was not “out of time” when it launched a review of Ryanair’s minority stake in Aer Lingus four years after the shares were bought.
Ryanair mounted a public takeover for all of Aer Lingus in October 2006. The European Commission investigated the bid and decided to prohibit it in June 2007. – (Reuters)
