The Office of Fair Trading has cleared Diageo’s anticipated acquisition of the Irish whiskey brand Bushmills from Pernod Ricard.

The OFT said it had decided on the information currently available to it not to refer the merger to the Competition Commission under the provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002.

Pernod Ricard sold the brand to Diageo for approximately £200m in June as part of its takeover of Allied Domecq.