CMA fires warning shot at cost of living cartelists
Cartelists that treat the cost of living crunch as an excuse for anti-competitive collusion will face the firm hand of the regulator, the UK’s competition watchdog warned today.
In a speech today at the Pinsent Masons annual competition conference, the enforcement boss at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the cost-of-living crisis would have a “huge impact” on consumers and competition was key to minimising that.
“We will tackle anti-competitive practices and transactions that unnecessarily raise prices,” Grenfell said.
“We will not allow cartelists to treat the current economic circumstances as an excuse for anti-competitive collusion that makes things worse for consumers.”
The watchdog has launched a series of unannounced inspections in recent months to weed out covert anti-competitive practices, and Grenfell said the ‘dawn raids’ were “a signal of our intent”.
The comments came as he took aim at firms offering so-called subscription traps that lock in customers with a maze of contracts and agreements, particularly in software and video games.
“We have already used our consumer protection law powers to address the practice of subscription traps – the way suppliers make it harder for consumers who have signed up to a subscription subsequently to be free of it, especially as prices rise – and have secured improvements in the terms and conditions for subscriptions to anti-virus software and to online video games,” he said.