Competition Law – how aware are you?

Originally published 27 June 2011

Keywords: competition law, OFT, guidance, compliance, risk identification, risk assessment, risk mitigation

On 27 June 2011, the OFT published guidance for businesses and company directors on competition law compliance. It also published a film of a staged dawn raid, with commentary to help businesses to identify risks and comply with competition law. Both the guidance and the film can be found on the compliance project page of the OFT's website (http://www.oft.gov.uk/OFTwork/competition-act-and-cartels/competition-law-compliance).

The new guidance is intended to help businesses create a "compliance culture" and to enable them and their employees avoid the risks of infringing competition law. The consequences of infringement are serious: businesses that breach competition law risk fines of up to 10 per cent of the worldwide turnover of their corporate group and actions for damages. Company directors face disqualification of up to