Competition winners: an insight into the work of the Competition and Markets Authority's Cartel and Criminal Group
On 1 April 2014, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) became the UK's lead competition and consumer authority. In our first year we have already started to deliver real results for UK consumers and businesses across the economy. We are conducting investigations into markets which really matter to people, such as energy and banking, and we have opened six new enforcement cases.
January 21, 2015 at 06:53 AM
5 minute read
Effective enforcement of competition law is central to our purpose and function as an organisation and means that consumers, businesses and markets are protected from poor practices – not just in the markets where we take cases, but across the wider economy via greater deterrence, increased compliance and better understanding of the law.
We now have the opportunity to expand and enhance our capacity to tackle cartels; one of the most – if not the most damaging – form of anti-competitive behaviour.
Our work
As our name suggests, the Cartel and Criminal Group (CCG) exists primarily to uncover, investigate, and deter cartels. We take an 'end to end' approach to our work.
This starts with advocating the use of our leniency and informant reward programmes and the cartels hotline by potential informants and then developing the leads we receive to the point at which we can exercise our formal powers of inspection.
This involves full-scale investigations, enforcement action by way of fines or criminal prosecution and ends with targeted, strategic communications to make sure we maximise the deterrent impact of our work.
CCG sits within the CMA's wider Enforcement Directorate which has responsibility for enforcement across our competition and consumer tools.
Our work also has a strong policy element. We are at the forefront of the development of global cartel enforcement policy: we participate actively in the international and European competition landscapes to make sure that we and our international enforcement partners have the tools and instruments we need effectively to fight cross-border cartels.
On the domestic front, we also work with the UK Government more broadly to deliver an optimal regime for cartel enforcement.
Our team
Uncovering, investigating and taking enforcement actions against cartels requires a wide range of specialist skills. As part of our ambition to deliver a step change in UK cartel enforcement, we have been recruiting highly experienced professionals across all these areas and from different backgrounds, as well as developing less experienced staff.
Working in CCG presents the opportunity to work with talented professionals in multi-disciplinary teams to deliver important work which benefits society and the economy.
Effective cartel enforcement requires collaboration not only across CCG but across the CMA and with the broader enforcement community. We rely on our colleagues across the organisation to support and challenge our work.
Economists, for example, provide expert economic advice about the scope of the market and communications specialists help us reach out to our target audiences with relevant messages and channels. We also engage with a range of partners, both national and international, from local police forces to the US Department of Justice, to help us in our mission to fight cartels.
The civil cartel team is made up of specialists with a range of different backgrounds, including lawyers from private practice (competition or litigation departments) and staff from other regulators/enforcers such as Ofcom or Ofgem.
Many of us have also worked in other roles within the CMA – or its legacy organisations, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Competition Commission (CC) – such as the mergers or policy groups or other government departments, such as the Treasury. Whatever our experience, we support each other in meeting the novel and varied challenges we face.
Our vision
Our Enforcement Directorate's vision reflects our ambitions: "To raise awareness and achieve credible deterrence across the UK economy by delivery of a steady stream of cases, delivered efficiently, using a broad range of tools with intelligent courage, and looking to be savvy and strategic about the range of outcomes pursued and thereby raising awareness of competition and consumer law."
Our ambition is to bring about a step change in UK cartel enforcement and we are investing in both people and our infrastructure to achieve it. This investment builds on the OFT's legacy as a world-leading cartel enforcement agency, having established a strong reputation for innovation in the fields of intelligence and advocacy.
We expect CCG to almost double in size by March 2015. We have already brought on board three new Directors of Intelligence, Criminal Enforcement and Digital Forensics.
Existing members of staff are enjoying additional training and development and our investment is providing for stronger intelligence via an enhanced and more sophisticated digital and forensic capability. The roles for which we are currently recruiting are an essential part of our future plans.
- Joining the CMA offers a uniquely exciting professional opportunity and the chance to contribute to the future of the UK competition regime. Click here to find out more about CMA and the careers within Cartel and Criminal Group.
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