Competition Law, An Overview

• Published date: 28 February 2022
• Subject Matter: nti-trust/Competition Law, Antitrust, EU Competition
• Law Firm: DMH Stallard
• Author: Mr Jonathan Compton

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the Forum.... Having settled behind my desk for the morning, nursing coffee after my long commute from the kitchen to the upstairs office, I received a call.

The caller needed advice on Competition Law. I said I was happy to assist. Having taken the details of the caller, I turned over a fresh page in my notebook and listened attentively to what I anticipated would be the facts of the case. The caller then outlined their plan for a charity fun run; which permissions were needed from the Local Authority, Local police and whether St John's Ambulance would need to be on hand...

The penny slowly dropped... wrong type of 'Competition' law.

Competition, or Anti-Trust, Law is the legal intervention of the state into the operation of the market place to prohibit unfair trade practices.

I am going to limit my article to those aspects of Competition Law which affect the consumer market in the UK.

The CMA - Competition and Markets Authority

The public authority in the UK which regulates the conduct of actors in the market is the Competition and Markets Authority, the CMA.

The CMA has powers to:

• protect consumers from unfair trading practices of commercial undertakings
• take action to enforce fair trading and fine those who breach competition law
• investigate entire sectors of the market
• investigate mergers where there is a structural risk to the market

The Competition Act 1998

The main powers of the CMA, for the purposes of this article, are set out in the Competition Act 1998. Chapter One deals with firms or companies acting together to distort a relevant market. Chapter Two deals with larger companies whose market power is such that they can use that market power to distort the market. I am using 'firms' and 'companies' for the purposes of this article, but, in truth we are dealing with any organisation that carries out commercial activities. The word most often used in the context of the Competition Act 1998 is 'undertaking'. It matters not. What we are dealing with is anything or anyone that carries out commercial activities in a market place.

The CMA has powers to investigate. It can arrive unannounced at an office. It has powers of entry and powers of seizure. These powers, taken together, are often referred to as 'Dawn Raid' powers. More prosaically, the CMA can demand production of documents and can seek a court order (with costs) compelling the production of documents.

The CMA can set out the parameters of...