How we investigate
This section contains a description of our procedures for conducting
inquiries, as well as information about our enforcement powers and the role
of the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
Please follow the links on the left.
For further details, see our Rules
and Guidance documents.
Council Review
We have to act within a set legal framework for the way we conduct our operations,
as shown in our Rules and Guidance documents. This ensures that our investigations
are fair, transparent and rigorous.
We have internal systems designed to help the organisation
learn from each inquiry and to share best practice internally.
This helps us review the way we conduct our investigations,
to ensure our working practices are effective and efficient,
that we are using the most appropriate analytical tools, and
to minimise unnecessary burdens on the organisations we are
investigating.
This year as part of a wide ranging ‘Council Review’ looking
at all our operations, we held three external roundtable events
with leading lawyers, accountants and economists. These roundtables
considered and consulted on ongoing refinement of techniques
and processes used in our investigations, and resulted in some
useful suggestions to improve the way that the CC collects,
analyses and communicates information relating to investigations.
• CC
staff and members invited a small group of senior City
competition lawyers with much experience of CC investigations
to discuss our current investigative procedures and any
ways in which they might be improved.
• Our
Members and staff invited a group of senior economic consultants
and financial / economic academics to discuss the use of
profitability analysis in CC inquiries.
• Fourteen
senior academics, regulators and consultants from outside
the CC joined staff and members to discuss specific areas
of econometric analysis used in merger and market inquiries
and to assess the appropriateness of these techniques in
CC inquiries, by considering their evidential value, their
descriptive and predictive accuracy, and their practicality
within our statutory timeframes.
We are grateful to all the participants in these roundtables
for helping in the ongoing review and development of CC procedures
and practices.
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