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UK: Competition regulator doubles its workload

By  |  November 8, 2016

The UK Competition and Markets Authority has sharply stepped up its enforcement work and opened 14 new competition cases this year, double its average for the past five years.

CMA director Michael Grenfell told the Financial Times that the watchdog was also improving its record on making decisions in infringement cases. He said it had issued four infringement decisions in the last year and was close to decision on a fifth.

The National Audit Office recently rapped the UK competition regulator, saying it “faces big challenges in increasing the low number of enforcement decisions to date”.

The NAO noted the CMA had made an average of only 3.6 infringement decisions per year and opened an average of 6.8 cases, while imposing only £65m in fines in the three years between 2012 and 2014.

Full Content: Financial Times

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