UK’s Price Cap Plan For Funerals Shelved During Pandemic

The competition regulator says the coronavirus pandemic has forced it to abandon a series of measures it was considering to fix the UK’s funeral market.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it would be unsafe, given the COVID-19 crisis, to take forward much of its findings on a sector that, it said, was “not working well”.

It had previously identified “rip-off” charges among operators and its investigation, first launched in 2018, found inflation-busting increases in costs going back over a decade.

The CMA had been considering measures such as price caps but it admitted on Thursday that its in-depth inquiry had been blown off course by the pandemic.

It had not only hampered access to funeral and crematorium providers, the watchdog said, but it also noted that the industry had been under great pressure to handle a surge in death rates and meet the needs of grieving families amid tough funeral-related restrictions.

As such, the watchdog said at this stage it would only require funeral directors and crematoria to provide more clarity on the prices of the services and packages they offer.

The CMA added that it might launch a supplementary market investigation following the conclusion of the coronavirus crisis.

Full Content: Sky News

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