Competition Law

Guernsey has now followed Jersey's lead by introducing a body of competition laws to the island. The laws came into force on 1 August and will be particularly relevant to businesses that actively trade and conduct business in Guernsey.

Guernsey's competition laws are largely modelled on those already in force in Europe. Findings of anticompetitive behaviour by the European Commission are often headline news. For example, in 2009 Intel was ordered to pay a record EUR1.06 billion after the European Commission found that it had abused a dominant position in the market for computer chips.

In addition, whilst it is relatively rare for the European Commission to block a proposed merger in its entirety, it is prepared to do so if it believes that the merger would hinder effective competition. For instance, earlier this year the European Commission blocked the proposed merger of Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext which would have created the world's largest stock exchange