The Competition Act 1998 prohibits any form of price co-ordination between competitors, whilst the Enterprise Act 2002 raises the prospect of criminal sanctions.
Over the last year much of the press comment on competition matters has been directed to the OFT's ongoing investigation into the UK construction industry which was started in the early part of 2006 and looks like it will continue well into 2008.
However, in the background the OFT (and also the US Department of Justice) has been carrying out an investigation into price fixing between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic in relation to fuel surcharges on long-haul flights.
In a Press Release issued at 7am today, the OFT has announced that it has imposed a fine of £121.5M (see subsequent update below following original publication of this article) on British Airways in relation to price fixing between 2004 and 2006. This fine is the largest ever imposed by the UK competition authorities and is over 5 times larger than any
