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1st October 2009

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Writers' guild ready to give up fight against exclusive deal

26.08.09 Victoria Gallagher

The British Guild of Travel Writers (BGTW) has admitted that it has reached the end of the road in its fight against the W H Smith Travel Penguin deal after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said it had decided not to pursue an investigation into the exclusive deal.

Under the arrangement, revealed in The Bookseller in June, W H Smith Travel outlets will continue to stock only Penguin (Rough Guides, DK and Alistair Sawday) foreign travel guides. The BGTW complained to the OFT in June alongside the chair of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild (OWPG) Chris Bagshaw.

In light of the OFT's response, BGTW chair Melissa Shales said: "I’m not really sure we can take it any further because short of somebody with an awful lot of clout getting involved . . . we are only small fry. I can’t see it’s going to happen and it’s very sad.”

In a letter received by the BGTW, Helen Cameron, who conducts preliminary investigations at the OFT, said: "We do not consider it appropriate to make further enquiries into this matter. This is an administrative priority decision. It does not reflect a substantive view on the merits of your complaint."

Bagshaw was unavailable for comment. Shales added: "We hope the public will continue to vote with their wallets and choose from the broad range of travel guides available in other bookshops which offer a proper choice, rather than serving the the monopoly interests of one publisher."

Penguin's market share of the travel sector has grown since the beginning of its exclusive deal on foreign guides with WHS Travel. In the four weeks to 11th July 2009 Penguin's sales through the sector grew 7.9% to £1.2m,  due to rises at DK (7%) and Rough Guides (8.9%). Penguin's market share saw a growth of 0.6% in this same period, when compared with the previous four weeks.

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