The Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have called on the legal community to consult on a good practice guide for merger inquiries.

The two bodies jointly launched the consultation yesterday (25 May), asking for input from law firms, consultants and market research agencies on a best practice framework for presenting consumer survey evidence in merger investigations.

The consultation will lay out several examples of good survey design and detail a range of ways that can help improve the weight of evidence that can be given to survey results.

Steve Brown, the OFT's head of statistics and secretary of the joint drafting group, said: "Submissions derived from consumer surveys can form an important part of the evidence in a merger investigation. The final guide will ensure that parties who wish to provide survey evidence have as much practical assistance from the Competition Commission and the OFT as possible."

The deadline for responses to the consultation is 3 September, with a final guide expected sometime in the autumn.

Linklaters competition partner Eamonn Doran commented: "It is much better that there is a joint approach so we do not have two sets of guidelines governing the same procedures. This is just a step toward creating an overall more efficient and certain process."