{"id":88408,"date":"2018-01-26T14:50:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T14:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=203fdbe21ca9f719d3821aa46d240a40"},"modified":"2018-01-26T14:50:57","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T14:50:57","slug":"news-story-fair-rules-change-after-cma-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=88408","title":{"rendered":"News story: Fair rules change after CMA investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The changes include opening up Guild-run fairs for non-member showmen and reducing restrictions on rival fairs opening close to Guild fairs. They also include practical steps to improve transparency, including publishing the Guild\u2019s rules online, and ensuring objective criteria for membership are explicitly set out.<\/p>\n<p>The rule changes were proposed by the Guild following an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (<abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>). This raised concerns that some of the rules restricted competition, potentially to the detriment of millions of UK fairgoers and showmen.<\/p>\n<p>The changes, which were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/cma-cases\/leisure-sector-anti-competitive-practices#decision-to-accept-binding-commitments\">accepted by <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> on 26 October 2017<\/a>, are aimed at:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Giving fairgoers more choice and variety in their local area<\/li>\n<li>Improving the quality of rides and fairgoers\u2019 all-round experience<\/li>\n<li>Giving councils more power to decide who runs fairs in their area. This will allow them to change the make-up of fairs and refresh under-performing fairs<\/li>\n<li>Helping members and non-members of the Guild work together more easily, providing fresh attractions to fairgoers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Following the membership\u2019s vote in favour, the rule changes were ratified at a meeting of the Guild\u2019s Central Council on 17 January 2018 and have now come into force.<\/p>\n<p>It remains for the Guild to fulfil its commitment to the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> to publish its amended rule book online by no later than 31 March 2018. The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> will continue to monitor the Guild\u2019s progress in this regard and its adherence to its Commitments more generally.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> has conducted a number of other investigations into the conduct and rules of trade associations such as those in relation to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/cma-cases\/investigation-into-property-sales-and-lettings-and-their-advertising\">Property Sales and Lettings<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/cma-cases\/conduct-in-the-healthcare-sector\">Private Ophthalmology<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/cma-cases\/conduct-in-the-clothing-footwear-and-fashion-sector\">the Modelling Sector<\/a> and its work in all these areas, including in the present case, should serve as a wake-up call to trade associations whose rules look to shield their membership from competition.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> has produced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/competition-law-dos-and-donts-for-trade-associations\">advice to help trade associations<\/a> avoid breaking competition law as well as a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gov.uk\/cma\/competing-fairly-in-business\">range of simple guides<\/a>, including videos, 1-pagers and an online quiz to help smaller businesses understand what to look out for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CMA welcomes news the Showmen\u2019s Guild members have voted in favour of rule changes proposed to address its competition concerns.<\/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\/88408"}],"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=88408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}