Household fuel bid-riggers fined as CMA ramps up cartel crackdown

The investigation followed a tip-off to the CMA's cartels hotline.  The CMA's investigation is in line with the recent ramping up of its enforcement activities, and the launch of its new anti-cartel advertising campaign to encourage whistle-blowing.

The investigation

CPL and Fuel Express are two of the biggest suppliers of charcoal and coal for household use in the UK and were found to have taken part in an market sharing cartel.  In particular, the CMA found that the companies engaged in an illegal arrangement to rig bids to supply Tesco and Sainsbury's, and exchanged confidential and competitively sensitive pricing information with each other, from June 2010 to February 2011. The £3.4 million penalty includes a 20% reduction for admitting to the infringement and engaging in the CMA's settlement procedure.

The investigation, which was launched on 7 November 2016, followed a tip-off to the CMA's cartels hotline, which led the CMA to carry out unannounced inspections at the suppliers' premises.

CMA campaigns

The investigation is consistent with the CMA's recent ramping up of its enforcement activity, and the launch, in February 2018, of a new campaign to "Stop unfair cartels" and encourage whistleblowing. The new campaign, which advises "when it comes to cartels, be safe not sorry", includes guidance videos, a cartel quiz, and real-life examples of previous cartel cases.

The campaign follows the award of an extra £2.8 million of funding from the government for this work and a 30% increase in tip offs in 2017 following the launch of the CMA's first digital campaign (see this previous Ashurst article).

The CMA also notes that this campaign will target a range of industries that are at a greater risk of cartels forming, including construction, manufacturing and business support services.

The launch of this campaign demonstrates that this continues to be an area of focus for the CMA, and that companies of all sizes should carefully consider their compliance with competition law. However, if this campaign is as effective as the last, resources may become an issue for the CMA. It will be interesting to see how this is balanced against the CMA's administrative priorities going forward.

With thanks to Danica Barley of Ashurst for her contribution