The National Federation of Retail Newsagents has asked the Office of Fair Trading to carry out a full market inquiry into the distribution of newspapers and magazines.

The National Federation of Retail Newsagents has asked the Office of Fair Trading to carry out a full market inquiry into the distribution of newspapers and magazines.

The federation revealed yesterday it had made the application to the OFT four-and-a-half months ago, and had expected to hear the outcome at the beginning of 2007.

The regulator yesterday announced that a request had been made and went on: "The OFT is considering the NFRN's request, in the light of its guidance as to when references to the Competition Commission will be made."

The OFT, however, said that the application would have to go out to consultation, and that the consultation would not start until after it had completed its current two pieces of work on the industry, which themselves have been rumbling on since 2004.

The UK wholesale magazine and newspaper market is dominated by WH Smith, John Menzies and Dawson Holdings, who control around 85% of the market in discrete territories.

In 2005, after long deliberation, the OFT said it believed the current system fell foul of EU law, then in March 2006 it said magazines might not, then two months later said it would start afresh on drawing up a whole new legal opinion on the issue.

At the same time it is reviewing the industry code of practice. Yesterday it said these two pieces of work would be completed during the next few months and then it would start thinking about the NFRN's request.

David Daniels, national secretary of the NFRN, commented that the opinion would not change anything and added: "The code is being reviewed by the OFT under the 1973 Fair Trading Act; that is a narrow remit, it can't achieve anything at all. That is why we are asking it to look at the industry under the Enterprise Act.

"What we are ultimately aiming for is not a referral but a new code of practice with new undertakings, to get the industry working efficiently."