The development of British competition law. A complete overhaul and harmonization

A weakness of the régime established by the legislation

A weakness of the whole of the régime that I have been describing has always been

and remains that until –

-

a particular situation has been referred to the MMC,

-

the MMC has investigated it and reported that it or conduct related to it

operates or may be expected to operate against the public interest and

-

the authorities have then obtained satisfactory undertakings from the parties

or, in the absence of such undertakings, have made orders governing their

future conduct,

the régime provides neither public law nor private law remedies to the authorities or

to injured third parties in respect of the situation or conduct in question even if it is

of a kind that has previously been condemned in other cases; and even after the

process that has been described above has been completed, the régime provides

---

14

remedies only in respect of the situation or conduct that has been prohibited in so far

as it continues thereafter. This is subject only to the possibility of the authorities

making interim orders to prevent the consummation of mergers before they have

been investigated and cleared.

I will come back to the future of the MMC after reviewing the two other competition

law régimes that were operative alongside the common law and the monopolies ad

mergers legislation by the 1980s and 1990s.

III.