{"id":78305,"date":"2017-01-25T12:20:20","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T12:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=51a2361d91b744fd730e16e1c486d05c"},"modified":"2017-01-25T12:20:20","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T12:20:20","slug":"press-release-south-east-lawyers-asked-to-help-raise-competition-law-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=78305","title":{"rendered":"Press release: South East lawyers asked to help raise competition law awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Around 260 law firms headquartered in the South East of England will be encouraged to share the Competition and Markets Authority\u2019s (<abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>) easy-to-use competition law information with their small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) clients.<\/p>\n<p>The information is intended to help <abbr title=\"Small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr> recognise anti-competitive practices, comply with competition law and report suspicions of illegal anti-competitive activity.<\/p>\n<p>The approach is part of the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>\u2019s ongoing drive to boost awareness of, and compliance with, competition law, following the launch of its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/competing-fairly-in-business-advice-for-small-businesses\">competing fairly in business: advice for small businesses<\/a> materials and the South East of England is the latest region chosen as a target for the awareness-raising drive.<\/p>\n<p>The consequences of breaking competition law can be very serious. Recently, a managing director of an online poster supplier was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/cma-secures-director-disqualification-for-competition-law-breach\">disqualified<\/a> for 5 years after the company was found to have been part of an online price-fixing cartel.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, businesses can be fined up to 10% of their annual turnover and people involved in cartels can face up to 5 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/uk-businesses-understanding-of-competition-law\">research<\/a> shows that businesses\u2019 understanding of competition law in the area is low:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>only 59% of businesses surveyed in the South East of England knew that price-fixing can lead to imprisonment<\/li>\n<li>only 33% of businesses surveyed in the South East of England knew that it is unlawful to set the price at which others can re-sell their product<\/li>\n<li>only 7% of businesses surveyed in the South East of England had run training sessions on competition law<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> has also commissioned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/small-businesses-understanding-of-competition-law\">further research<\/a> which revealed that most small businesses have a shared ethical sense that certain anti-competitive practices, such as price-fixing, are unfair or wrong and want to do the right thing.<\/p>\n<p>Ann Pope, <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> Senior Director of Antitrust Enforcement, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The victims of anti-competitive activity can often be other businesses, so knowing what illegal behaviour looks like and how to report it can help small and medium-sized businesses protect themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The potential consequences of breaking the law are very serious. That is why it is important that all businesses know what to look out for and report suspected breaches to the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Legal advisers to <abbr title=\"Small and medium-sized enterprises\">SMEs<\/abbr> are ideally placed to help raise awareness of competition law among their clients.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Nikki Burns, Chair of FSB Thames Valley said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s good to see the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> raising awareness among small businesses of the rights they possess under competition law. Anti-competitive practices harm many small businesses across the Thames Valley and the South East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">We must create an environment where all small firms recognise and report anti-competitive behaviour and are not afraid to speak out. Helping small businesses identify all the forms that anti-competitive practices can take is a good starting point.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3 id=\"notes-for-editors\">Notes for editors<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> is the UK\u2019s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law. For <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> updates, follow us on Twitter <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CMAgovUK\">@CMAgovuk<\/a>, <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cma-gov-uk\/\">Flickr<\/a>, <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/competition-and-markets-authority\">LinkedIn<\/a> and <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CMAgovUK\/?fref=ts\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Media enquiries should be directed to Simon Belgard (<a href=\"mailto:simon.belgard@cma.gsi.gov.uk\">simon.belgard@cma.gsi.gov.uk<\/a>, 020 3738 6472).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawyers in the South East of England are being asked to help promote awareness of new competition law compliance materials to business clients.<\/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\/78305"}],"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=78305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}