Competition law basics

What are the principles of competition law?
Principle.
Competition law, or antitrust law, has three main elements: prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business.
This includes in particular the repression of free trade caused by cartels..

Dec 1, 2020Both UK and EU competition law prohibit businesses with market power from unfairly exploiting their strong market positions, known as an "abuse"

What are the objectives of competition law?

The key objectives of competition law are welfare, efficiency, and free and fair competition.
There are distributive dimensions in competition law that are related to different notions of welfare (consumer surplus and producer surplus).
The different types of efficiencies are subject to trade-offs - within a given time (allocative versus ..

What does competition law prohibit?

The purpose of competition law is ensuring a fair marketplace for consumers and producers by prohibiting unethical practices designed to garner greater market share than what could be realized through honest competition.

What does competition law stand for?

Competition law, or antitrust law, has three main elements:

prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business.
This includes ,in particular the repression of free trade caused by cartels.

What happens if a business does not comply with competition law?

All businesses must comply with competition law and there can be serious consequences for businesses and individuals, including directors, for non-compliance

Competition encourages businesses to improve and innovate, for the benefit of their customers

What is competition law in the UK & EU?

Both UK and EU competition law prohibit agreements, arrangements and concerted business practices which appreciably prevent, restrict or distort competition, or where this is the intended result, and which affect or may affect trade within the UK or the EU respectively

Cartels

These are the most serious types of anti-competitive agreements, where two or more businesses agree, whether in writing or otherwise, not to compet...

Abuse of a dominant position

A business that enjoys substantial market power over a period of time might be in a dominant position.The assessment of a dominant position is not...

Other potentially anti-competitive agreements

Other agreements that could be anti-competitive include agreements, whether in writing or otherwise, that: involve joint selling or purchasing with...

Making sure your business is compliant

There are different ways to ensure that your business complies with the law, but key to them all is instilling a compliance culture in your organis...

What happens if the law is broken

Businesses that are found to have breached competition law can be fined up to 10 per cent of their annual worldwide turnover and ordered to change...

What directors need to do

Directors need to be fully committed to compliance with competition law and should take steps to ensure their business does not break the law.The C...

What to do if you think competition law has been broken

If you suspect another business is infringing competition law: call the CMA Cartels Hotline on 020 3738 6888 email cartelshotline@cma.gov.uk Busine...