Energy market referred to CMA
27 Jun 2014 11:53 AM
The Competition and
Markets Authority (CMA) is to carry out an investigation into the GB energy
market after Ofgem announced its decision to refer
yesterday
Ofgem made a provisional
decision to refer the market in March, following ajoint
assessment of competition in the energy market, carried out by Ofgem, the
Office of Fair Trading (see notes to editors) and the CMA.
The CMA will now carry out its
own comprehensive, independent investigation to see if there are any features
of this market which prevent, restrict or distort competition and, if so, what
action might be taken to remedy them. For more information on market
investigation references see the market investigation note (PDF, 102KB, 2
pages)
The CMA is required to publish
its final report by 25 December 2015.
The CMA will shortly appoint
independent panel members to the Investigation Group and publish a timetable
setting out a schedule for the various stages of the investigation. The
appointed Investigation Group act as the decision makers and are chosen from
the CMA’s panel members, who come from a variety of backgrounds,
including economics, law, accountancy and/or business.
The CMA will also publish an
issues statement early in the investigation, which will set out the scope of
the investigation and the questions it will be looking to answer, and invite
submissions in response to this.
All information relating to the
investigation will be available on the energy market case
page.
Notes for
editors
-
The CMA is the UK’s
primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent
non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out
investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing
competition and consumer law. From 1 April 2014 it took over the functions of
the CC and the competition and certain consumer functions of the Office of Fair
Trading, pursuant to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013. For more
information see theCMA homepage. For CMA
updates follow us on Twitter @CMAgovuk,Flickr and LinkedIn.
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In its investigation, the CMA is
required to decide whether ‘any feature, or combination of features, of
each relevant market prevents, restricts or distorts competition in connection
with the supply or acquisition of any goods or services in the United Kingdom
or a part of the United Kingdom’. If so, then there is an adverse effect
on competition and the CMA will also consider whether this is resulting in a
detrimental effect on customers such as higher prices, lower quality or less
choice of goods or services. The CMA will then decide whether the CMA should
introduce remedies to tackle the adverse effect on competition or detrimental
effect on customers so far as it has resulted from, or may be expected to
result from, that adverse effect on competition, or whether the CMA should
recommend action be taken by other bodies to remedy the adverse effects on
competition, and if so, what actions or remedies should be taken. If the CMA
finds that there is no adverse effect on competition, the question of remedies
will not arise.
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Ofgem’s statement can be
found on their website.
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Enquiries should be directed
to Rory Taylor by
ringing 020 3738 6798.