CHARLES LYNDON 

It is widely known in the industry that the FCA has been granted powers to apply competition law in the ‘financial sector’. What is perhaps less widely known is that the FCA is obliged to first consider whether applying competition law would be more appropriate than its wider regulatory powers. All FCA regulated persons urgently […]

Recent cases dealing with ultimate liability for competition abuses has again highlighted the increasing levels of enforcement of competition law. It is therefore essential that directors and all levels of management understand where legal liability can fall. Authorities routinely look beyond the strict legal form of a corporate structure in order to ‘get to the […]

The UK government is getting serious about criminal enforcement of cartel activity. A recent simplification to the criminal offence has been designed with the stated intention of ensuring more convictions. The CMA intends to bring “as many new criminal cartel investigations as possible.” Criminal Sanctions for Individuals A maximum of 5 years imprisonment, an unlimited […]

Increasing the effectiveness[1] of competition law is high on the government’s agenda, and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) wants to increase enforcement. This places company directors In particular in the crosshairs and gives them a personal and professional interest in ensuring that the company has a competition law compliance culture – for example, if […]

The UK’s main competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (‘CMA’) has called for sector regulators to increase their use of competition law. In April, the CMA published its second annual concurrency report, which summarised the competition law activities of the sector regulators – “must do better.” The CMA “hope[s] to see a greater number of […]

Enhanced Need For Competition Compliance All companies, especially SMEs, urgently need to update their competition compliance policies. The government and courts have recently greatly increased the liability for violating competition laws by: simplifying the criminal offence with the intention of bringing “as many new criminal cartel investigations as possible,” prioritising enforcement in respect of SMEs […]