Unlock free Digest editor
Roula Khalaf, editor of FT, chooses her favorite story in this weekly newsletter.
The UK Competition Regulator is likely to carefully carefully carefully study global contracts because the Government is pushing him to adopt the agenda of higher growth, the head of the agency said.
Sarah Cardell, Executive Director of the Competition and Market Directorate, said that “a few global contracts” can now continue without interfering with CMA, while emphasizing that it will not be an “open season” for the mergers that harm consumers.
“I think there may be a handful of global contracts on the sidelines that we would have previously looked at that we may not decide we should not watch,” she said on Thursday at the London conference against the protection of protection by the Economist.
However, Cardell warned that “is not an invitation, the open season for each individually competitive connection under the sun. If we see the wave of those who pass, I think our reviews will increase. ”
The Agency has already announced that it will reduce the deadlines at some counseling about the merger in an attempt to speed up the business procedure, after the ministers called to be “more agile”.
The government said in its Draft “strategic steering” for the Agency this month That CMA should strive to avoid multiplication where other regulatory bodies look at contracts that will also take care of the UK.
CMA has faced with intense control of recent monthsbecoming a focus of government frustration due to regulator due to the inhibiting business investment in the UK. Last month, the ministers threw out a chair of the agency Marcus Bokkerink in a striking move, replacing him with former chief of Amazon UK, Doug Gurr.
On Thursday, Cardell admitted that the change needed in CMA, but advised the job “against the spending of the terrible time of engaging in the Government on individual contracts,” warning that it would not be “fertile”.
Admitted that there was an impression that the participation of CMA had had a “cold effect earlier [on mergers] And that I have a responsibility. . . act on that. ”
She added, “There is an inner coherence and cohesion to what we do. We have not suddenly entered this state of insecurity.”
