CMA has published its 2020/21 annual concurrency report outlining how CMA has worked alongside other regulators, including FCA, to enforce competition law across a range of industry sectors.
Highlights from the report include:
- three new investigations launched by CMA, FCA and the ORR to investigate competition concerns in online payments, financial services and rail services, respectively;
- two fines following the CMA-led investigations into the private healthcare and financial service sectors, totalling over £19 million;
- three ongoing investigations launched by Ofgem, Ofcom and PSR, resulting in those regulators provisionally finding breaches in competition law; and
- CMA’s and regulators’ responses to issues caused by the pandemic and advice to government on legislative approaches to address them, such as:
- advising government on exclusion orders – legislation to relax competition law in specific circumstances – to enable a coordinated response to the pandemic;
- publishing guidance on cooperation for UK businesses who find it necessary to liaise with competitors (for example, to ensure continued supply or to assist with national and local efforts to tackle the pandemic); and
- four investigations into suspected charging of excessive and unfair prices for hand sanitiser.