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ARTICLE · 10 DECEMBER 2016

UK Competition Authority Secures Disqualification Of Director For Five Years

Reed Smith (Worldwide)
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On 1 December 2016, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it had secured its first disqualification of a director of a company found to have infringed competition law.

United KingdomAntitrust/Competition Law
Edward Miller
Edward Miller
Marjorie C. Holmes
Marjorie C. Holmes
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Co-authored by Kevin A. Nkugwa

On 1 December 2016, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it had secured its first disqualification of a director of a company found to have infringed competition law.

Background

Daniel Aston, managing director of the online poster supplier Trod, gave a disqualification undertaking not to act as a director of any UK company for five years.

This disqualification follows the CMA's final decision of 12 August 2016 that Trod and GB Posters infringed competition law by agreeing that they would not undercut each other's prices for posters and frames sold on Amazon's UK website. The case against Trod started when the CMA launched an investigation on 1 December 2015. As part of its investigation, the CMA conducted searches at the headquarters of Trod, as well as the domestic premises of one of its officers. In July 2016, Trod admitted agreeing the infringement and agreed to accept a fine of £163,371 for taking part

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