Companies need to increase their awareness of competition issues as the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the European Commission (EC) toughen their stance on unfair trading, Norton Rose competition partner Mark Jones (pictured) has warned.

Speaking in the seventh episode of Legal Week Crisis Management Q&A in association with Norton Rose, Jones says companies need to ensure they have sufficient training and compliance procedures in place to avoid cartel activity and price-fixing.

Jones warns that despite talk that competition laws have become less important since they were overlooked by the Government to pass the Lloyds TSB/HBOS merger, laws relating to price-fixing and cartel activity are still being heavily enforced.

Potential penalties have been increasing and companies are facing record fines both in the UK and Europe – BA, for example, was hit with a price-fixing fine of around £120m, highlighting the importance of legal compliance.

However, businesses must also ensure they have the measures in place to deal with any problems that do arise, so that risks can be managed and liabilities closed down.

Watch the video here.

• Crisis Management Q&A – Radford Goodman
• Crisis Management Q&A – Sam Eastwood
• Crisis Management Q&A – Monique Fry
• Crisis Management Q&A – Paul Griffin
• Crisis Management Q&A – Lesley Browning
• Crisis Management Q&A – Dominic Stuttaford
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