Formed 1 October 2013 | Jurisdiction United Kingdom | |
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Type Non-ministerial government department Headquarters Victoria House, 37 Southampton Row, London, WC1B 4AD Authority executives Parent department Department for Business, Innovation and Skills | ||
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for strengthening business competition and preventing and reducing anti-competitive activities. The CMA launched in shadow form on October 1, 2013 and began operating fully on April 1, 2014, when it assumed many of the functions of the previously existing Competition Commission and Office of Fair Trading, which were abolished.
Contents
Formation
On March 15, 2012, the UK Government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) announced proposals for strengthening competition in the UK by merging the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission to create a new single Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The formation of the CMA was enacted in Part 3 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, which received royal assent on April 25, 2013.
In July 2012, Lord Currie was appointed Chairman designate of the CMA and in January 2013 Alex Chisholm was appointed Chief Executive designate. The term 'designate' was dropped when the CMA was launched on October 1, 2013.
On July 15, 2013, BIS announced the first stage of an open public consultation period and published a summary, setting out the background to the consultation and inviting views on the draft guidance for the CMA. The first stage of the consultation ended on September 6, 2013. On September 17, BIS announced the second stage of the consultation, which closed on November 7, 2013.
During 2013 and 2014, the CMA announced several waves of appointments at director level, reporting to members of the senior executive team:
On March 28, 2014, the CMA published the Rules of Procedure for CMA merger, market and special reference groups following a consultation which ran from February 21 to March 18.
Responsibilities
In situations where competition could be unfair or consumer choice may be affected, the CMA is responsible for:
CMA Board and Senior Executive team
Controversy
The UK Competition Commission ruled several times against MyFerryLink, so it could no longer operate from Dover despite the French competition authority authorizing cross-channel activity. The French government blamed the decision to ban one out of three ferry operators on fair-trade concerns. The appeals court overturned these rulings because MyFerryLink was not a merger of the bankrupt SeaFrance and Eurotunnel. MyFerryLink called attention to a potential conflict of interest, pointing out that the former accountant of DFDS (the competitor and plaintiff) was now a member of the UK Competition Commission. Following these delays, Eurotunnel (owner of the boats rented to MyFerryLink) sold two new boats to the DFDS competitor. Because of this the port of Calais was blocked by workers, boats were occupied and the Channel Tunnel attacked, resulting in cross-channel disruption and traffic jams in the UK and France.