The Cartel Offence within a “World Class” Competition Regime: An Assessment of the BIS Consultation Exercise and its Results

The March 2011 Department for Business, Innovation and Skill's Consultation on reforms to the UK's competition regime are an attempt by the government to improve on the UK's “world class competition regime.” In this paper, I examine the consultation, Government's Response and the resulting Bill in an effort to determine the extent that the suggested reforms improve the regime as a whole. I argue that the reforms resulting from this process are far from an improvement to the UK's regime. This is primarily due to the piecemeal approach taken during the process, with the assumption that “improvements” to one aspect of the regime will not have consequences for other aspects. By considering only reforms to the Cartel Offence, and failing to examine the interaction of this offence with leniency programmes and private enforcement, the project fails to improve on a world class regime.