Of Lance Armstrong And Competition Law Risk

"Two things scare me. The first is getting hurt. But that's not nearly as scary as the second, which is losing." - Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong is a word famous US sportsman, cancer survivor and seven times Tour de France winner. However he has now been stripped of those titles after a doping scandal. He may be the perfect example of the hero to zero phenomena: a sporting legend that beat his competitors and a killer disease before his reputation was completely trashed with doping allegations.

Some would say he cheated to achieve a competitive advantage in his field. Others have argued that doping was rife in cycling at the time, and he was just the one who got caught. Either way, his reputation will never recover.

Unfair competition in business is as much of a no-no as performance enhancing drugs are in sport, and the consequences can be as damaging.

The quotations throughout this article are all Lance Armstrong's.

Awareness of competition law in UK businesses - ignorance is no defense

"The question that lingers is, how much was I a factor in my own survival, and how much was science, and how much miracle?"

In April 2014 the UK Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission merged to form the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The CMA sets out to promote competition for the benefit of consumers, both within and outside the UK; and to make markets work well for consumers, businesses and the economy.

Its responsibilities include investigating examples of anti-competitive behaviour and law enforcement.

In spring 2015 the CMA published a study on UK business awareness of competition law, anti-competitive behaviours and the penalties for violations. The study included interviews with over a thousand senior sales people. On average, these employees identified only 4.2 of the ten true/false statements correctly.

These results indicate an alarming lack of awareness that could put businesses at serious risk of breaching competition law. Additionally, this lack of awareness may limit a business in asserting its own rights to protect its position in the marketplace.

The legal framework

"Extraordinary allegations require extraordinary evidence."

Businesses operating in the UK are subject to UK and EU competition law. As civil law, the standard of proof is somewhat less than Mr Armstrong suggests it might be in the world of sport. This is, on the balance of probabilities, that the defendant is more likely liable than not liable. The...