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Reform of the UK
Competition Regime
The Enterprise
Act was introduced to the House of Commons on Tuesday 26 March
2002 (see DTI
press notice) and received Royal Assent on 7 November 2002.
The Act includes reforms to merger and monopoly
regimes with decisions taken by independent competition authorities,
new duties for OFT to promote competition, and criminal penalties
for those involved in cartels. The Act and accompanying Explanatory
Notes are available from the Parliament
website.
 White
Paper
The Bill measures were contained in the White Paper
"Productivity and Enterprise: A World Class Competition
Regime", which was published on 31 July 2001.
Productivity
and Enterprise: A World Class Competition Regime 
Welsh language summary
Accompanying press release.
The July 2001 competition regime White
Paper was foreshadowed by a joint DTI/Treasury document "Productivity
in the UK: Enterprise and the Productivity Challenge",
published on 18 June 2001.
21st December 2001 - the
Government published its response
to the July 2001 consultation on reform to the UK competition regime
.
18 September 2002 - the
Government published consultation documents on two elements of the
Enterprise Bill which will be dealt with by Statutory Instrument:
- The Competition Appeal Tribunal
Rules
Consultation
document
Annex - Draft Statutory Instruments
- The proposed maximum penalties
for failure to comply with the Competition Commission's requests
for information
Consultation
document (97Kb).
28 January
2003
- the Government published a consultation on certain technical
Statutory Instruments under the Enterprise Act covering: merger
fees; turnover; use of land; ECMR cases; and mergers in stages. The
deadline
for response is 28
February 2003.
The
consultation documents are on our Consultations
page.
DTI Contact
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