The Competition and Markets Authority has 12 cases open, including an investigation into estate agency services.
Other investigations include fake reviews of businesses, online sales, and paid-for advertorials.
Five of the cases have been opened in the past couple of months.
The CMA, which last year fined a ‘cartel’ of estate agents, their membership body and a local newspaper in Hampshire a total of £775,000, also signalled in an interview with the Financial Times, that it will raise the level of fines.
The CM can conduct both civil and criminal investigations, and has started to pick up speed on more civil cases.
It has power to fine companies 10% of their global revenue.
It also has the power to disqualify directors.
Alex Chisholm, who has led the CMA since inception, said: “Over the course of 2016, we want to see a big step-up in the scale and impact of our enforcement activity.”
Comments (4)
Err no Trevor. Right Move that you champion so much.
AM/OTM restraints say no more
“Businesses abusing their ‘dominant position’
This is another major type of anti-competitive activity by businesses that you can report to the CMA.
A business might have a ‘dominant position’ in the market if:
it has more than a 40% market share
it’s not affected by normal competitive restraints
It might be abusing a dominant position if it’s unfair to its customers or other businesses.”
I’m all in favour of agents being taken to task for acting illegally or in an unfair manner but, which massively dominant agency supplier might the above quote taken from the CMA guidance page apply to I wonder….?
Answers on a postcard please
Link to guidance page http://bit.ly/1PCHl3Q
Postage stamp would also be appropriate. The same company that (never been forcible!) stipulates in its contracts that you may not disclose your fee’s to a third party.