Cheat or Compete?

Cheat or Compete?

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a new “Cheating or Competing” awareness campaign as part of its crackdown on cartel activities.

The CMA puts the onus firmly on business to identify the distinction between competing fairly and cheating the system through unlawful activity. 

The web resources issued by the CMA on 26 February explain the effects of breaching competition law and provide red flags that could indicate behaviour that falls the wrong side of the line. These include discussions with competitors about prices, customers or territories, or future plans, sharing competitive sensitive information, industry-wide price fluctuations, and unusual aspects of pricing documents.

The CMA notes that the campaign has won support from the Federation of Small Businesses.

Strikingly, a survey conducted by the CMA in January 2020 found that only 6% of firms are familiar with competition law and 25% saw no problem with discussing bids with a competitor in the context of tenders. These statistics may seem surprising to competition lawyers.  They show that despite the UK having had competition law in its current form for two decades, there is still much work to do in raising awareness and understanding of the rules and consequences of breach.

https://cheatingorcompeting.campaign.gov.uk/?utm_source=GOV.UK&utm_medium=Homepage-image&utm_campaign=Cheatingorcompeting_2020