Competition Law
What is competition law? It is the law that monitors the behaviour of companies to ensure they do not engage in anti-competitive behaviour as this ultimately hurts the consumer. Anti-competitive behaviour includes price fixing or abusing market dominance. In addition, competition law prevents a company from becoming a monopoly by preventing mergers or takeovers if they mean the company would become too large.
Much of the law on competition in the UK comes from Europe. Our blog keeps you up-to-date with competition law news from the UK and Europe, and lets you know about any current and interesting investigations.
For legal advice on competition law, contact us today. Contact Law can refer you to an expert solicitor in your local area.
Landlady wins important step in battle to air Premier League games
A pub landlady from Portsmouth has made important progress in her legal battle against the Premier League and its exclusive deals with Sky Sports and ESPN. Karen Murphy wants to be able to buy cheaper foreign decoder cards in order to screen matches on Saturdays in her pub. The High Court sent the case to [...]
Filed under Competition Law, October 4th, 2011Tesco to challenge price-fixing fine of £10m
Tesco has been fined £10m by competition watchdog the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for being part of a group of supermarkets and dairy processors that fixed dairy prices between 2002 and 2003. Tesco has strongly denied being part of any anti-competitive price fixing and said it will “vigorously” defend itself, “through the courts if [...]
Filed under Competition Law, August 11th, 2011National Grid sues for access to Europe-wide cartel’s secret documents
The High Court in London has to rule on whether National Grid can have access to confidential documents that were made by companies involved in a Europe-wide engineering cartel, which the company is accusing of costing it £235m in business. The illegal engineering cartel ran from 1988 to 2004, and the companies involved were fined [...]
Filed under Competition Law, July 8th, 2011Competition Commission orders BAA to sell Stansted
The Competition Commission has again ordered BAA to sell Stansted airport and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airport in order to comply with its 2009 ruling. Spanish-owned BAA, which also owns Heathrow, Southampton and Aberdeen airports, was ordered in 2009 to sell three airports. It subsequently sold Gatwick airport to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for £1.51 [...]
Filed under Competition Law, March 30th, 2011News Corp one step closer to acquiring BSkyB
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has been given the provisional green light by the Culture Secretary to acquire the rest of the shares in BSkyB, a takeover widely condemned as a serious threat to media plurality in the UK.
Filed under Competition Law, March 3rd, 2011Tottenham ready to challenge Olympic stadium decision in court
Tottenham Hotspur’s chairman, Daniel Levy, is reportedly consulting the club’s lawyers ahead of the announcement that will finally establish which club is to get the Olympic Stadium after the 2012 games.
Filed under Competition Law, February 11th, 2011News Corp offer compromise to EC to allow BSkyB takeover
Richard Murdoch’s News Corporation has submitted a remedy to the European Commission in the hope that it will allow them to buy the 61% stake in BSkyB they do not already own.
Filed under Competition Law, December 3rd, 2010