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ARTICLE · 26 JULY 2016

CMA Final Remedies: Tough Or Tepid?

Addleshaw Goddard
Addleshaw Goddard
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In the excitement of last week's EU Referendum, you may have missed the Competition and Markets Authority's final report on its two-year investigation into the energy market.

United KingdomAntitrust/Competition Law
Bruce Kilpatrick
Bruce Kilpatrick
Rona Bar-Isaac
Rona Bar-Isaac
Richard Goodfellow
Richard Goodfellow
John Emerton
John Emerton
Guy Winter
Guy Winter

In the excitement of last week's EU Referendum, you may have missed the Competition and Markets Authority's final report on its two-year investigation into the energy market.

It largely confirms the CMA's provisional findings last July and its provisional remedies published in March. The main differences are:

  • After lobbying from the 'Big Six' energy companies, who claimed the figure was inaccurate, the CMA has changed its provisional conclusion that the Big Six overcharged their customers by £1.7bn a year, instead ruling that customers could have saved £1.4bn in a fully competitive market.
  • The removal of the 'whole of market' requirement on price comparison websites, so that they need only display tariffs of suppliers who have paid commission. Understandably, the smaller suppliers (who do not pay commission to websites) are not happy with this.

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