With all the recent focus on
GDPR as the big area of legal compliance, it is easy to forget
and overlook other important areas -
competition law being one of them. The fines for non-compliance
with competition law can be up to 10% of turnover compared to the
4% of turnover for breach of GDPR (or €20 m). To be honest, we
are probably some way off seeing large fines at the top end of the
scale for breach of GDPR.
Competition law, however, is far more mature and it is not
uncommon to see eye-watering fines in this area.
A recent example involved 6 estate agents in the small Somerset
town of Burnham-on-Sea (population less than 20,000) who conspired
to agree a minimum commission rate that they would all charge. This
deprived local home owners of the chance of shopping around to get
a better deal on the commission rate when selling their property.
Even though the number of people affected by this anti-competitive
behaviour was extremely small, the estate agents were
