OFFICE OF FAIR
TRADING News Release (31/08) issued by The Government News Network
on 29 February 2008
The OFT has today
announced a policy under which it will pay financial incentives of
up to £100,000 in return for information which helps it to
identify and take action against illegal cartels. The policy will
run for an initial period of 18 months, after which a decision
will be made whether this should be a permanent arrangement.
Rewards will be paid only where information is accurate,
verifiable and proves to be useful in the OFT's anti-cartel
enforcement work, and will be calculated according to a set
formula and not subject to negotiation.
Cartels are a particularly damaging form of anti-competitive
behaviour and taking action against them is one of the OFT's
priorities. Cartels are prohibited under the Competition Act, and
any business found to be a member of a cartel could be fined up to
ten per cent of its turnover. In addition, the Enterprise Act
makes it a criminal offence for individuals to dishonestly take
part in cartels, and anyone convicted of the offence could receive
a maximum of five years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.
Simon Williams, OFT Senior Director of Cartels and Criminal
Enforcement said: 'Cartels are very damaging both to
businesses and consumers and they are usually conducted in secret
making them hard to detect. Cartels are not the preserve of big
business - for example, if a local authority needs to find a
contractor to refurbish its schools, it is unacceptable for local
contractors to seek to rig the tender process by colluding on
price. That's bad for taxpayers, consumers and other
businesses. We believe that it is in the public interest to offer
financial incentives in the hope that it will encourage more
people who have good information about the existence of hard core
cartel activity to come forward, and in exceptional circumstances
these incentives may be as high as £100,000.'
Anyone who has information about cartels is asked to call the
cartels hotline on 0800 085 1664 or e-mail cartelshotline@oft.gsi.gov.uk.
http://www.oft.gov.uk
PUBLIC enquiries: 0845 7224499 enquiries@oft.gov.uk
OFT
reports and consumer information leaflets are available free
from:
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