Barbour Index, the information provider to the construction industry, has been given a licence to provide online data by the British Standards Institute after a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading.
Barbour Index, a sister firm of Building publisher the Builder Group, alleged that the BSI had refused to grant it a licence to supply BSI standards online. It said this constituted an abuse of a dominant position.

OFT chairman John Vickers said the BSI decision was good for competition and innovation in online standards information. He said no conclusion had been reached on whether the BSI held a dominant position or had abused it.

The BSI standards are the rules, guidelines or characteristics to which products, activities or services should conform.

BSI sells information on these standards direct to customers through a joint-venture company, British Standards Publishing. It also provides licences to a number of specialists such as Barbour Index.