Clifford Chance
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013: The UK Competition Reforms
29 April 2013
The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act received Royal Assent on 25 April 2013. The competition provisions are likely to come into force in April 2014. The biggest change will be the merger of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission to create a new, powerful single competition authority.
In addition, it will no longer be necessary to prove dishonesty to secure a criminal conviction for individuals involved in a cartel.
Other reforms include binding deadlines and information gathering powers for Phase 1 merger reviews, greater consideration of public interest issues in market investigations, compulsory interviews during competition investigations and relaxed criteria for the imposition of interim measures.
