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Tough competition?

22 July 2011 / David Corker
Issue: 7475 / Categories: Features , Company
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David Corker responds to the criminal cartel offence reform proposals

Drastic change to the UK competition regime was proposed by the government in its March 2011 consultation paper. In relation to the criminal cartel offence under the Enterprise Act 2002 (EnA 2002), the government set out four options for reform, all of which included the removal of the dishonesty requirement from the offence in order to make it easier to prove in court. But is this the best approach and is it too soon to be proposing such a radical change?

Prosecutions to date

Eight years after the commencement of the criminal cartel regime, only two cases have come to court. The first prosecution, Marine Hose [2010] 4 CMLR 148, posed no legal or evidential difficulty for the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). All the defendants had already committed and bound themselves to an antecedent US plea agreement in relation to every aspect of their criminality, even to the extent that their deference met with the disapproval of the Court of Appeal. The Court

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

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