Lord Black of Brentwood: ...purpose of the legislation. On the issue of precision, it is hard to see how a move away from a well-established and understood legal concept can add clarity in this area. Since its adoption in the Competition Act 1998, as my noble friend Lord Lansley said, the indispensability standard has been tested extensively, meaning that designated firms, third parties and the CMA alike would have a...
Lord Etherton: ...same breach, whether or not they are aware of their right to damages or other relief, unless they take steps to opt out. Provision for collective proceedings, or class actions, already exists in the Competition Act 1998, as amended by the Consumer Rights Act 2015, for breaches of competition law. My Amendment 49 would extend that provision to the rights of civil action given to consumers...
Lord Johnson of Lainston: Price fixing and collusion, in any sector, is illegal under the Competition Act 1998. The Competition and Markets Authority, the “CMA”, is responsible for investigating anti-competitive practices. As an independent authority, the CMA has discretion to investigate competition cases which, according to its prioritisation principles, it considers most appropriate. The Digital Markets...
Lord Etherton: ...requirements and pro-competition interventions to comply with their obligations. Provision for collective proceedings—which, colloquially, are generally called class actions—is made in the Competition Act 1998, as amended by the Consumer Rights Act 2015. That provision, however, applies only to breaches of competition law. For these reasons, I would urge the Government to make...
...commitments or comply with the direction.” This amendment improves the clarity of this provision and makes it clear that the CMA can only impose a penalty on an individual under section 35B of the Competition Act 1998 (inserted by paragraph 6 of Schedule 9 to the Bill) for failing to comply with a direction in cases where the direction was given to the person. Amendment 159, page 268,...
...4) In section 19 (Chapter 2: excluded cases) omit subsection (3).” This new clause (which would be inserted into Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Bill) would repeal paragraph 8 of Schedule 3 to the Competition Act 1998, which has been redundant since the expiry of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community.—(Kevin Hollinrake.) Brought up, and read the First time.
Robert Buckland: ...of the problems in, in effect, handing considerable power to the new digital markets unit is that the legal landscape relating to this activity is unformed. Unlike the landscape that underpinned the Competition Act 1998, we do not have the advantage of years of EU and UK court interpretation that was then applied by guidelines issued by the CMA.
...Lucy Frazer, Kevin Hollinrake, Paul Scully, Gareth Davies, Julia Lopez and Sir John Whittingdale, presented a Bill to provide for the regulation of competition in digital markets; to amend the Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002 and to make other provision about competition law; to make provision relating to the protection of consumer rights and to confer further such rights;...
Paul Scully: The final clauses in part 2 concern measures that cut across the Competition and Markets Authority’s competition tools. Clause 136 introduces schedules 8 to 10 to the Bill. The Competition Act 1998 and parts 3 and 4 of the Enterprise Act 2002 already allow the CMA to impose civil penalties for non-compliance with information requirements. The destruction of documents that have been required...
Paul Scully: ...focuses on the UK’s existing competition regime. First, I will explain that while the CMA is the principal regulator responsible for the public enforcement of the prohibitions in part 1 of the Competition Act 1998, its functions are also exercisable concurrently by sector regulators, such as Ofgem and Ofcom, among others. The measures in clauses 116 to 120 and clause 135, and when we...
Paul Scully: Let me cover the criminal offences in the regime, which largely mirror existing powers that the Competition and Markets Authority has in the Competition Act 1998. Criminal liability is important for deterring serious acts of misconduct in the context of information gathering and compliance monitoring, and will help to ensure that the digital markets unit can access relevant information....
Paul Scully: ...strategic market status, where that firm has breached the digital markets regime. That will allow the DMU to use the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, as the CMA does currently under the Competition Act 1998, when an SMS firm infringes the regime and the director’s conduct makes them unfit to be involved in the management of a company. That helps to protect UK businesses and...
Paul Scully: ...fulfil their role. Clause 111 ensures that the CMA is protected against legal action for defamation as a result of delivering the digital markets regime. This matches long-standing provision in the Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002. Clause 112 sets out how the CMA must undertake its duties to consult and publish statements online in the course of delivering the digital...
Baroness Merron: ...group of amendments is intended to provide better protections for service providers, their users and the wider public, alongside processes that should mean fewer delays and greater efficiency. The Competition Act 1998 permits appeals of Ofcom’s decisions to be made additionally on account of an error of fact, an error of law or an error of the exercise of its discretion. The current...
Alex Davies-Jones: ...CMA the power to require any individual to attend an interview and answer questions for the purposes of a digital markets investigation. That is consistent with the amendments to section 26A of the Competition Act 1998. We welcome those, so it is only right that the powers appear in this legislation, too. These are basic powers and the clause is fairly procedural. The CMA must have the...
Alex Davies-Jones: ...an exhaustive or non-exhaustive list of acceptable grounds for exemption. Broadly speaking, though, Labour welcomes the Government’s approach, which has similarities with the approach taken in the Competition Act 1998. It would be remiss of me not to remind the Minister that that important Act came into being thanks to a Labour Government. The reality is that Labour has always been...
Paul Scully: .... Secondly, I will use the words “firm” and “undertaking” interchangeably. “Undertaking” is the word used in this part of the Bill and is an economic concept that is already used in the Competition Act 1998. The concept of an undertaking covers any person engaged in economic activity, regardless of its legal status and the way in which it is financed. “Persons” may be...
...can be strengthened. I am sure that you will have heard about these in other sessions. First, I think there are strong grounds for making sure that the appeals standard is aligned with that in the Competition Act 1998, which is appeal on the merits as opposed to judicial review. Secondly, the Bill should ensure that consumer benefits can appropriately be considered by the regulator in the...
...things using its competition powers. An example of that at the moment is the competition case it has had about Google’s Privacy Sandbox and the use of third-party cookies on Chrome. That is a Competition Act case where the commitments that Google has agreed with the CMA are actually influencing how it is operating Chrome globally, so there is still some scope for the UK to have a role...
...drawing board—we are going to set the CMA’s decision to one side and then conduct the process all over again.” That is much more similar to the full merits review that we have at the moment on Competition Act 1998 cases. Our experience there is that it results in very protracted litigation—we often have cases that are in court for five or six weeks. But, fundamentally, it also...