Stubhub hit with legal threat over ‘misleading’ ticket sales January 29, 2020 Stubhub is facing legal action from the competition regulator over claims the ticket reseller misled customers. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a wider crackdown on the secondary ticket market amid concerns many websites are a hotbed for ticket touts. But the regulator said it was concerned that Stubhub was not complying with [...]
City watchdog rolls out ban on funeral provider cold calling July 5, 2021 The City watchdog has confirmed plans to ban cold calling by funeral plans providers as part of a wider crackdown on the industry. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today unveiled new rules that companies will have to follow from 29 July 2022. In addition to the ban on cold calling, these include a guarantee that [...]
Long awaited audit reforms could start this year, says audit watchdog boss March 5, 2020 The long-promised reform of the UK audit sector could start this year with voluntary changes by the Big Four accounting firms, the audit watchdog said today. The collapse of outsourcer Carillion in 2018 prompted three reviews of the sector and two years on there have been calls from MPs and industry figures to speed up [...]
SSE-Npower merger: Competition and Markets Authority launches probe into the proposed merger February 28, 2018 The competitions watchdog has opened an investigation into the proposed merger of SSE’s retail unit and German-owned Npower. In November, the firms announced a deal where Britain’s second-largest supplier, SSE, would merge and spin off its household energy and supply business to create an independent supplier with Innogy’s Npower. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) [...]
How better competition policy can restore public trust in capitalism March 6, 2020 Competition policy is not something most people spend much time thinking about. It’s a dry, legalistic area of policy that even elected officials themselves have largely preferred to delegate to technocratic regulators. Yet competition policy is an integral part of the lifeblood of capitalism. At a time when trust in the market economy is under [...]
Pension savers may lose thousands of pounds if they do not move ‘older pots’ February 1, 2022 If pension savers do not move older pots into ones offering better value for money, they could be thousands of pounds worse off, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned this morning. Many working-age people have pension pots that they are no longer actively contributing to – and there are concerns that these pots could provide [...]
John Glen: How I’m going to reform EU’s Solvency II post-Brexit February 25, 2022 This government has been clear about its vision for turning the UK into the most open and dynamic financial services sector on the planet. We understand the crucial contribution the sector already makes to this country and are determined, post-Brexit, that it fulfil its huge potential. A big part of that will be about unleashing [...]
Facebook and Ebay pledge to combat trading of fake reviews, says competition watchdog January 8, 2020 The competition watchdog has announced that Facebook and Ebay have signed agreements committing to combat the sale of fake and misleading reviews on their platforms. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) raised concerns about the trade of fake and misleading reviews on tech giants’ platforms last summer, and has been pressing them to crack down [...]
1 Minute Market Rundown – 14th April 2022 April 14, 2022 Russia – UkraineChina Indicates Looser Monetary PolicyCrypto ConsolidatesECB in Focus We have spoken about the path of least resistance being the USD higher, yields higher and risk lower. Thus naturally it made sense that we saw the total opposite yesterday… We saw, in our minds, a relief rally across the board heading into the ECB [...]
Competition watchdog risks ‘killing’ British tech firms, startups warn March 3, 2020 The UK competition watchdog risks “killing” rising British tech companies by launching lengthy investigations while global rivals are free to pull ahead, startups have warned. In a letter to chancellor Rishi Sunak, seen by City A.M., industry body the Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) said the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) “eleventh-hour interventions” risked [...]