The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has cleared the joint venture between Carphone Warehouse and US electricals giant Best Buy.

The deal, in which Best Buy will acquire half of Carphone’s European and US retail businesses, is worth£1.1billion. The OFT said today that it would not be necessary to refer the merger to the Competition Commission.

Best Buy is now free to open its supermarket-size stores in the UK as planned.