Independent sourcing system provider Orbiter has backed the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) move to refer MBL Holdings’s acquisition of TrigoldCrystal Group to the Competition Commission.

The OFT believes that existing suppliers will be unlikely to compete adequately with the merged entity and that barriers to entry in this market in the UK are high. It is concerned that the merged entity could increase prices and/or decrease innovation, quality, range or service to customers.

Wayne Smethurst, director of Orbiter, expressed his concerns over the acquisition to the OFT during the regulator’s investigation and believes it has come to the right conclusion.

He told BestAdvice.net: “My main concern is that a monopoly is not necessarily a bigger threat than the current duopoly – except in the following critical ways. Firstly there is price. If an effective monopoly exists there is very little customers can do to stop price rises.