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ARTICLE · 26 FEBRUARY 2018

Blowing The Whistle On Anti-Competitive Cartels

Brodies LLP
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The UK competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has announced a 30% increase in "tip-offs" relating to cartels in 2017 following its "Cracking down on Cartels" ...

United KingdomAntitrust/Competition Law
Adam McCabe
Adam McCabe

The UK competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has announced a 30% increase in "tip-offs" relating to cartels in 2017 following its "Cracking down on Cartels" social media and website campaign, which we blogged about last year. Allied with an increased enforcement budget, the CMA has now launched a new "Be safe, not sorry" campaign to encourage more people to get in touch with information about cartels.

There are severe penalties for being involved in a cartel, which are agreements where two or more competing businesses agree to coordinate their behaviour rather than compete with each other. Cartels might involve, for example, agreeing to fix prices, share customers or markets, or collude on "bid-rigging" arrangements. The impact on both customers and competitors can be very significant. Prices may be kept artificially high, consumer choice can be reduced and product quality and innovation can suffer. Over the past two years, the CMA has

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