Cartels exploiting cost-of-living crisis will face action, warns CMA
The CMA鈥檚 most senior enforcer has warned that anyone looking to exploit the cost-of-living crisis by forming cartels risk robust enforcement action, including possible dawn raids.
Image credit: CMA
In a speech today Michael Grenfell, Executive Director of enforcement at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), said the cost-of-living crisis would have a 鈥榟uge impact鈥� on consumers but that competition was key to minimising that impact. 聽
He added that:
We will tackle anti-competitive practices and transactions that unnecessarily raise prices.聽We will not allow cartelists to treat the current economic circumstances as an excuse for anti-competitive collusion that makes things worse for consumers. The dawn raids we have launched already this year should serve as a signal of our intent.
He also said that the CMA will continue to crack down on unfair practices such as subscription traps 鈥榯hat make things worse鈥�.
We have already used our consumer protection law powers to address the practice of subscription traps 鈥� the way suppliers make it harder for consumers who have signed up to a subscription subsequently to be free of it, especially as prices rise 鈥� and have secured improvements in the terms and conditions for subscriptions to anti-virus software and to online video games.