Decoding competition law enforcement decisions in the UK

Takeaways

The essential points from these presentations are as follows:

• The CMA has a high success rate – 50% of investigations result in an infringement decision.
• The consumer and retail sector tops the chart as being the most investigated.
• Technology, life sciences and building & construction are not far behind.
• There are stark differences between sectors in the way the CMA pursues its investigations.
• In almost three quarters of cases resulting in an infringement decision, parties benefitted from leniency and/or settlement.
• Over a third of the CAT appeals brought against CMA decisions have been successful with almost 40% of appeals being partially successful.
• The CMA has rolled-out a digital data monitoring tool, which it has used in the musical instruments sector. We expect this tool, and similar AI tools undergoing development in the coming years, to result in more investigations into e-commerce practices.
• We expect the CMA to continue to use its powers to pursue new theories of harm in response to changing technological, environmental and consumer conditions.
• Green agreements and environmental topics will increasingly be on the CMA’s radar. The CMA has published guidance on the assessment of green agreements vis-à-vis UK competition law and introduced a new “open door” policy under which companies can actively seek the CMA’s blessing for green agreements.

Looking forward

In addition to the analysis of all the OFT and CMA Competition Act decisions to date, we also set out below the trends we see shaping the competition landscape in the near future. These trends include:

• The continued focus on e-commerce.
• Increased willingness of the CMA to tackle novel theories of harm.
• Focus on green agreements and environmental topics.
• Evolving enforcement in digital markets, which focuses on more than just the big players.
• Heightened attention on labour markets.
• A growing role of the CAT in policing the CMA.