Office of Fair Trading
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OFT annual report charts a year of 'radical change and important achievements'
The OFT Annual Report published today reflects on the key achievements made by the OFT in the past year as well as setting out new performance targets for the future.
Highlights from the past year include:
* Credit Card default
charges - UK credit card issuers substantially reduced their
default charges on credit cards in response to action taken by the
OFT.
* Market studies - the OFT considered a number of
important, topical and complex issues in its studies ranging from
UK airports and UK internet shopping to the pricing of
pharmaceuticals. The results of these studies included the
referral of the markets for groceries, payment protection
insurance and airport services supplied by BAA to the Competition
Commission (CC) for further investigation, and recommendations to
government for the reform of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation
Scheme.
* Savings to consumers - OFT merger investigations
have saved consumers an estimated £52m through undertakings in
lieu of reference, and published CC decisions for 2006-07. In
addition to this, enforcement action leading to infringement
decisions under the Competition Act have saved consumers an
estimated £64m.
* Cartels - following an OFT investigation
into collusive tendering by construction companies in England, the
OFT uncovered evidence of bid-rigging in thousands of tenders with
a combined estimated value approaching £3bn.
* Consumer Direct
- in the OFT's first year of managing Consumer Direct, the
service received over 1.7 million calls and emails from consumers
and the service has begun to influence consumer behaviour, making
them more confident in dealing with suppliers of goods and services.
Looking forward the new performance targets for the OFT will focus more on outcomes, such as, changing the way consumers, businesses and government behave. In addition the OFT will commit to delivering direct financial benefits to consumers of at least five times the cost of the OFT annual budget to the taxpayer.
The new targets and objectives promise to deliver measurable benefits to UK consumers across four broad themes: delivering high-impact outcomes, being a centre of excellence and intelligence, working in partnership and building on the OFT's internal capability.
Philip Collins, OFT Chairman, said:
'The past year has
been a period of change and development, marked by a number of
important achievements. We have delivered significant benefits to
consumers, business and the economy. At the same time, we have
embarked on a programme of radical change inside our organisation,
designed to increase those benefits over the coming years by
allowing us to assess market failure and unlawful activity in a
more holistic way. Our new performance targets and objectives are
challenging but deliverable so that consumers, business and the
economy will derive enhanced benefit from our work.'
PUBLIC enquiries: 0845 7224499
enquiries@oft.gov.uk
OFT
reports and consumer information leaflets are available free
from:
OFT, PO Box 366, Hayes UB3 1XB 0800 389 3158 oft@ecgroup.uk.com
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