The Office of Fair Trading is not referring Inchcape to the Competition Commission, following its acquisition of European Motor Holdings in February.

The OFT studied the £262.9 million takeover to decide if the deal was anti-competitive.

The Government body focussed on whether the deal was a ‘substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services that warrants reference to the Competition Commission for investigation and report’.

However, the OFT said that instead of making the reference, it is considering to ‘accept appropriate undertakings from Inchcape to address the competition concerns that arose from the merger’. The OFT said it would make a decision ‘as soon as is reasonably practicable’.