Recent Developments in United Kingdom Antitrust Law
| Author | Mark R. Joelson,Earl W. Kintner,Joseph P. Griffin |
| Published date | 01 June 1974 |
| Date | 01 June 1974 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0003603X7401900202 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN UNITED
KINGDOM
ANTITRUST
LAW
by
EARL
W.
KINTNER,""
MARK
R. J
OELSON""
and
JOSEPH
P.
GRIFFIN*
Two
recent
events,
the
United
Kingdom's
accession
to
the
European
Communities!
and
the
enactment
of
the
Fair
Trad-
ing
Act,"
have
caused
a
significant
transformation
of
the
United
Kingdom's
antitrust
laws.
The
purpose
of
this
article
is to
analyze
and
synthesize
these
events
in
such
a
way
as
to
provide
a
practical
guide
to
the
present
operation
of
the
United
Kingdom's
antitrust
law
for
those
who
have
business
dealings
in
the
United
Kingdom
and
for
those
who
are
inter-
ested
in
the
varying
national
methods
employed
to
protect
competition.
RELEVANT
LEGISLATION
IN THE
UNITED
KINGDOM
The
national
antitrust
law
of
the
United
Kingdom
is
con-
tained
in
six
statutes,
with
the
later
ones
amending
or
expand-
ing
on
their
predecessors.
These
statutes
are
usually
referred
,~
Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin &Kahn, Washington, D. C.
AUTHORS'
NOTE:
This article is based upon research material for
a
part
of a chapter in a Primer on International Antitr1tSt Law, to
be published in 1974 by the Macmillan Company, New York, New
York under the co-authorship of
Earl
W. Kintner and Mark R.
-Ioelsoa.
The authors would like to express their appreciation to William
,J. Brown, Solicitor, Bristows, Cooke &Carpmael, London, for his
helpful comments on the manuscript of this article.
1Treaty Concerning the Accession of the Kingdom of Denmark,
Ireland, the Kingdom of Norway and the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland to the European Economic Com-
munity and to the European Atomic Energy Community
(Jan.
22,
1972),
effective
January
1, 1973.
2
Fair
Trading Act 1973, c. 41 (Royal Assent
July
25, 1973),
effective November 1, 1973, the
Fair
Trading Act 1973 (Commence-
ment
No.2)
Order, S. 1. 1973/1652 (October 2, 1973). See Korah,
The
Fair
Trading Act 1973 and the Functions of the Director-
General, 1973 J. Bus. Law 305, 370.
217
218
THE
ANTITRUST
BULLETIN
to by the dates of
their
enactment which
are
1948,8 1956,4
1964,s 1965,6 1968,7 1973.8Taken as a whole, these laws
created atwo-pronged system
for
dealing with restrictive
practices, monopolies and mergers. Concerted activity
and
agreements among competitors in
restraint
of
trade,
similar
to the type of activity proscribed in United
States
law by
Section 1 of the Sherman Act,
are
under
the jurisdiction of a
Director-General of
Fair
Trading
and aRestrictive Practices
Court. Monopolization and mergers
are
dealt with by the
Department of Prices
and
Consumer Protection
(DPCP)
and
the Monopolies
and
Mergers Commission, acting with the
assistance of the Director-General.
RESTRICTIVE
AGREEMENTS
AND
THEm
REGISTRATION
Certain types of agreements
must
be submitted to the
Director-General who is required to compile
and
maintain a
public register of these agreements
and
to
refer
certain of
them to the Restrictive Practices Court? which
must
decide
whether the restrictions
are
contrary
to the public interest.!"
The Court's decisions on
matters
of law
may
be appealed to
the Court of Appeal and then to the House of Lords. There
is no appeal
from
decisions of the Restrictive Practices Court
on
matters
of fact.
11
The Director-General is appointed by the
Secretary
of
State
for
Trade
and
Industry
for
a
term
not
exceeding five
8Monopolies
and
Restrictive Practices
(Inquiry
&Control) Act
of 1948, 11 & 12 Geo. 6, c. 66.
4Restrictive Trade Practices
Act
of 1956, 4 &5 Eliz. 2, c. 68.
5Resale Prices Act of 1964, c. 58.
6The Monopolies
and
Mergers Act of 1965, c. 50.
7Restrictive Trade Practices
Act
of 1968, c. 66.
8
Fair
Trading
Act 1973, c. 41.
For
a comprehensive discussion
of the law before the 1973 Act, see, R. Wilberforce, A. Campbell &
N. Elles, The Law of Restrictive Trade Practices and Monopolies
(2d ed. 1966 &Supp. 1973).
9§1(2), 1956 Act.
10
.§20(1), 1956 Act.
11
1f7,
Schedule, 1956 Act.
U.K.
ANTITRUST
LAW
219
years.12
In
addition to the duties formerly performed by the
Registrar
of Restrictive Trading Agreements, whose
office
was abolished in
1973,13
the Director-General has
very
broad
duties which the 1973 Act describes
thus:
(a) to keep
under
review the
carrying
on of commercial
activities in the United Kingdom which relate to goods
supplied to consumers in the United Kingdom or pro-
duced with a view to
their
being so supplied,
or
which
relate to services supplied for consumers in the United
Kingdom, and to collect information with respect to such
activities,
and
the persons by whom they
are
carried
on,
with a view to his becoming aware of,
and
ascertaining
the circumstances relating to, practices which
may
ad-
versely affect the economic interests of consumers in the
United Kingdom,
and
(b) to receive
and
collate evidence becoming available to
him with respect to such activities as
are
mentioned in
the preceding
paragraph
and which
appears
to him to be
evidence of practices which
may
adversely affect the
interests (whether they
are
economic interests
or
inter-
ests with respect to health, safety
or
other
matters)
of
consumers in the United Kingdom.
(c)
It
shall also be the duty of the Director, so
far
as
appears
to him to be practicable
from
time to time, to keep
12
§1, 1973 Act. On Aug. 13, 1973 Mr.
John
Methven was ap-
pointed Director-General, effective Nov. 1, 1973, New Consumer
Watchdog Has Plans to Benefit the Housewife, The Times (London),
Aug. 14, 1973,
at
1, col. 4.
In
March 1974 the new Labour Govern-
ment split the old
Department
of Trade
and
Industry
into three
separate Departments which are headed
by:
the Secretary of State
for
Industry;
the Secretary of State for
Trade
and
the Secretary of
State for Prices
and
Consumer Protection. The Times (London),
March 6, 1974,
at
1, col. 1. The Secretary of
State
for Prices
and
Consumer Protection has charge of the
Fair
Trading
Office
and
the
Monopolies
and
Mergers Commission
and
has announced
that
she,
the Rt. Hon. Shirley Williams, has "no intention
at
all of doing any-
thing
that
will weaken the
Office
of
Fair
Trading." Trade and In-
dustry, Mar. 14, 1974,
at
443.
13
§94(1), 1973 Act.
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