THE MERGERS and acquisitions workload of the Competition Authority fell last year after a tightening of the criteria under which such requests can be made, according to the watchdog's annual report published yesterday.

Seventy-two notifications to assess the effects on competition as a result of takeovers were received by the authority in 2007 compared to 98 in 2006, the report said.

The authority attributed the reduction to a "number of changes" to the Competition Act implemented at the end of 2006 to reduce the scope of mergers that must be notified to the authority.

Under the new provisions, companies involved in a merger or acquisition must be based in the State or have sales here equal to €2 million or more. Before the changes, companies with any level of sales in the Republic and not necessarily based here came within the ambit of the Act.

The authority said it made in total 70 "reasoned determinations" on competition cases bought to it under the Act last year.

The tightening of the law in this area had allowed the authority to devote more resources to mergers raising more "difficult issues of law, fact or economic analysis", the report said.

Of the 72 cases bought to the attention of the authority, 58 were cleared during initial investigations.

The authority said it had amassed "a solid record of achievement" last year, including the conviction of Cork businessman Denis Manning for assisting Ford dealers in operating a price-fixing cartel.

Authority chairman Bill Prasifka said the the conviction and other ongoing cases sent a "strong signal" that the court system viewed competition offences as "serious crimes against the public and that offenders should expect severe sanctions".