Boots gets go ahead for merger with Alliance UniChem

The Office of Fair Trading has decided today not to refer the anticipated acquisition by Boots Opticians' parent company of Alliance UniChem to the Competition Commission.

It said the transaction would only be referred if the two parties failed to provide satisfactory undertakings to address the competition concerns arising from the supply of retail pharmacy services in certain localities in the UK.

OFT chief executive John Singleton said: ''This is a market in which government regulations restrict competition by imposing barriers to new market entrants.

'As a result, cost savings arising from this merger may not be fully passed on to consumers in the form of enhanced services.