The government competition watchdog, the Competition Commission has given the go ahead for Waterstone's to take over its rival Ottakar's.

HMV Group, the company that owns Waterstone's, withdrew its offer for Ottakar's in December 2005 when the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) decided to refer the proposed acquisition to the Competition Commission (CC) to investigate whether the move would adversely effect the choice available to consumers.

HMV has not yet announced whether it will reinstate its offer, and is expected to await the final publication of the CC's report in May before making a final decision.

The Home Office and the Football Association (FA) have announced a major offensive against touts reselling world cup tickets.

The Government has introduced legislation that makes it an offence for anyone to tout for tickets for any domestic or overseas club match, or for any international match involving the England or Wales national teams. This extends existing legislation which applied to domestic matches only.

The mail order clothing company Damart has been criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for a mailing that was misleading and untruthful.

The mailing from Damart apologised for the customer not receiving a £3 cheque, which Damart knew full well had never been sent. It told the customer that on this occasion the Managing Director had personally intervened to approve a £5 cheque as compensation. Quite obviously the Managing Director could not have intervened as there was no cheque sent in the first place. The "cheques" too were not what they seemed - in fact they were simply discount vouchers.

A flower delivery company that operates from Jersey has been told not to rely upon guarantees made by their carrier Parcelforce when offering a guaranteed day of delivery to their customers.

Flying Flowers is a popular and well known flower delivery service. Whilst most of its flowers are sent by first class mail, its flagship product, the Ultimate Collection, is sent by the courier, Parcelforce.

The company states that the "day of delivery is guaranteed". Whilst this may appear to offer a service that will ensure that delivery actually happens on the right day, what it actually comes down to is the customer just getting a refund of the delivery charge if the flowers arrive late.

An offer to Debenhams account card holders for "15% Off Everything" has been found in breach of advertising regulations because it was untruthful.

Debenhams appeared to misunderstand the meaning of "everything", perhaps thinking instead that the word means something closer to "almost everything". In the small print for their offer, they listed at least ten product types which were excluded from the offer, and stated that the discount would be only 10% in cosmetic and electrical departments.

British men smuggle £864m worth of shopping past their partners each year (£336 each) including high-tech gadgets and designer gear too according to research from insurer Norwich Union.

In fact, men outrank women by almost 50%, although they still manage to get an average £227 of goods a year past their partners. When asked for the reason behind their expensive habits, many of the culprits (34%) said they were worried their partners would think their purchases were too expensive.

A service known as "Alarm Caller", that calls you to tell you that your burglar alarm has been activated, has been found to give a misleading impression that it may be endorsed by the Police.

The company behind the service, Brandingplus.com, has been criticised for the ad which the Advertising Standards Authority
(ASA), says could lead listeners to think the police might respond to their call. The Authority found that the police would not necessarily respond, as the service was not officially endorsed by them.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) continues to target shoppers aiming to help them understand their consumer rights when buying goods or services.

The latest roadshow takes place in Ipswich this week with OFT staff available in the Tower Ramparts Shopping Centre, Tavern Street offering advice and distributing consumer leaflets. A separate event is being held to help local business understand consumer issues.

A man convicted of possessing over 1000 DVD's, CD's and PlayStation games at a car boot sale has been ordered to pay back £39,000 being part of the profits of his crime.

The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) Financial Investigators, working in partnership with City of York Council Trading Standards, were successful in obtaining a Confiscation Order in the sum of £39,000 against James Joseph Waldron of Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

A trader convicted of possessing counterfeit clothing with a street value of more than £1 million has been ordered to repay £72,968 judged to have been earnt through his activities.

The case concerns Hanif Sattar Daud of Leicester who first came to the attention of Trading Standards on 28th March 2002 when they were called to his warehouse premises at 44a, Western Road, Leicester following a minor fire. Fire and police officers attending had discovered a quantity of clothing bearing well known brands.