“Three Strikes, You’re Out!”, or, as in the practice of the UK’s watchdog, “third time is a charm”, but the fourth is not. Let us check out the rules of fair play when it comes to protecting competition in the UK market. In the early 2020 Associated Lead Mills Ltd (ALM) and H.J. Enthoven Ltd (trading as BLM British Lead), two of the UK’s largest suppliers of rolled lead, admitted to forming a cartel and thus breaking the law four times by colluding on prices, sharing the rolled lead market by arranging not to target certain customers, and purposely not […]
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In these times of rapidly changing markets, the UK’s competition law determined the need for more clarity in existing rules, as well as an appetite to revise the ones which proved to be obsolete. This resulted in updated guidelines on merger assessment, following a comprehensive public debate. So, let’s check out the latest news from UK’s competition watchdog! The Competition and Markets Authority of the UK (“CMA”) highlighted its mandate to promote competition across the UK and beyond. The CMA’s goal is to protect consumers through its merger work and help companies and their advisers assess whether competition concerns might be […]
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We don our Facebook spyglass once again. However, unlike the last time it was on our radar, Facebook is now a model co-operator. With the goal of putting their products and services on the map, and bringing home the bacon, many users on social media and other online platforms have been involved in trading fake and misleading reviews as a way of reaching their selling point. The thing is, Facebook and eBay users have been using word-of-mouth marketing to go viral. Creating a buzz around your product/service is certainly what sells in this digital age. Good for them! What is […]
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As recent events suggest, the harmony and tranquility (of the most wonderful time of the year) in the UK audit market, dominated by the Big Four[1], is soon to be interrupted. The UK Competition & Markets Authority (“CMA”) has published an updated paper outlining serious competition concerns and proposing legislative changes in order to improve the audit sector for the sake of both savers and investors. After conducting a market study into the statutory audit market, the CMA reached the following conclusions: Since the companies are free to choose their own auditors, there has been too much evidence of them […]
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