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

Extension of the legislation to information agreements and services

Over the years, as a result of subsequent legislation, in 1976 agreements relating to

services were also brought within the scope of the Act, as too, largely in 1969, were

certain information agreements, only some information agreements having been

covered by the original Act; on the other hand, over the years a substantial number

of additional specific exemptions were provided by various Acts of Parliament. Also,

as a result of subsequent legislation, in 1968 operation of an arrangement to which

Part I of the Act applied became unenforceable as between the parties and a civil

wrong (eine unerlaubte Handlung) if the arrangement had not been duly notified in

accordance with the Act; and public law and private law remedies were made

available for use in such cases.

Once an agreement had been notified, whether voluntarily or as a result of an

investigation by the responsible official – from 1973 onwards, the Director General

of Fair Trading – he would refer it to the Restrictive Practices Court unless he and

the Minister of Economics agreed that it was too insignificant for that to be required.