{"id":56196,"date":"2015-04-01T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T11:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=6ca35a0f6dd456d8f54a553b5302796f"},"modified":"2015-04-01T11:00:43","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T11:00:43","slug":"news-story-cma-publishes-first-annual-concurrency-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=56196","title":{"rendered":"News story: CMA publishes first annual concurrency report"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Under the concurrency arrangements, in a regulated sector both the Competition and Markets Authority (<abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>) and the relevant sector regulator have powers to apply aspects of competition law, in particular the power to enforce the UK and EU prohibitions on anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominance, and the power to refer a market for detailed investigation by members of the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> panel.<\/p>\n<p>When the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> started work on 1 April 2014, the newly established concurrency arrangements also came into force, designed to strengthen co-operation between the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> and sector regulators and reflecting the government\u2019s desire to see sectoral regulators make greater use of their competition powers. Having produced an initial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/baseline-annual-report-on-concurrency\">\u2018baseline\u2019 concurrency report<\/a> on the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>\u2019s first day of operation, the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> is now held accountable for these arrangements and required by law to publish an annual assessment on how they are progressing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/competition-and-markets-authority-annual-concurrency-report-2015\">The report<\/a> outlines improvements to concurrency working during the past year \u2013 such as closer working with sectoral regulators, the establishment of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/groups\/uk-competition-network\">UK Competition Network<\/a> (<abbr title=\"UK Competition Network\">UKCN<\/abbr>) and the setting-up of a dedicated Sector Regulation Unit within the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>. It also details significant investigations that have started in the regulated sectors during the past 12 months.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Chisholm, <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> Chief Executive, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>As this report shows, the past year has seen a positive start with important building blocks put in place for more effective use of competition in the regulated sectors. We have seen good and productive co-operation between the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> and individual sector regulators, and the UK Competition Network is also working well in bringing organisations together and driving a proactive agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Major market studies into energy and banking have seen us work alongside Ofgem and the Financial Conduct Authority respectively, leading to market investigations in both these areas. The past year has also seen a marked increase in the amount of competition enforcement activity in these sectors.<\/p>\n<p>Although these are early days for these new arrangements, it\u2019s certainly an encouraging start as we seek to encourage competition and help markets work better in these sectors. As with any market we look at, we aim to promote competition to benefit consumers through downward pressure on prices and providing a spur to improve quality and innovation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">There remains much to be done but \u2013 working with the regulators \u2013 we are taking steps in the right direction.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Further information on concurrency can be found in the <abbr title=\"UK Competition Network\">UKCN<\/abbr>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/uk-competition-network-statement-of-intent\">statement of intent<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/baseline-annual-report-on-concurrency\">Baseline annual report on concurrency 2014<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CMA has published its first annual report on how concurrency arrangements, which cover<br \/>\ncompetition law enforcement in the regulated sectors, have operated over the past year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}