Competition Commission

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(Redirected from Monopolies and Mergers Commission)

The Competition Commission is a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other inquiries related to regulated industries under United Kingdom competition law. It is under the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (formerly the Department for of Trade and Industry).

The Competition Commission replaced the Monopolies and Mergers Commission on 1 April 1999. It was created by the Competition Act of 1998, although the majority of its powers are governed by the Enterprise Act 2002. The Enterprise Act 2002 gave the Competition Commission wider powers and greater independence than the MMC had previously, so that it now makes decisions on inquiries rather than giving recommendations to Government and is also responsible for taking appropriate actions and measures (known as remedies) following inquiries which have identified competition problems. These powers can include blocking mergers, requiring companies to sell off assets and making changes to the way particular markets operate.

The Government can still intervene on mergers that involve a specified public interest criteria such as media plurality, national security and financial stability.^[1]

The Competition Commission cannot instigate investigations itself - an inquiry commences following the referral of a particular case to the Competition Commission, most often by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) or by other sectoral regulators.