The UK Competition Regime

The UK competition law regime comprises primarily the Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002, supplemented by provisions introduced by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The foundation of the modern framework of UK competition law, the Competition Act 1998, has entered its twentieth year of operation, having come into force on 1 March 2000. Since that particular date, UK competition law has developed significantly through both decisional practice and jurisprudence. It has also undergone a process of modernisation, including both institutional and substantive reform. After the passage of an eventful twenty years of enforcement and reform, it is now an appropriate time to engage in a serious process of critical reflection on the current shape of the UK's competition regime and whether it is performing well its role of 'making markets work well for consumers'.

With this context in mind, the book examines in a robust and critical manner the first twenty years of the operation of the UK's competition regime. It focuses on the main substantive and procedural issues and provides a comprehensive analysis of how the UK's contemporary competition regime has dealt with the challenges posed by these issues. By doing so, the book not only articulates those areas of competition law that are working well in the UK, but also those areas where further reflection, refinement and possible reform are required.

Barry Rodger, Professor of Law, University of Strathclyde,Peter Whelan, Professor of Law, University of Leeds,Angus MacCulloch, Senior Lecturer, Lancaster University

Barry Rodger has been an academic at Strathclyde University Law School since 1993. His primary teaching and research interests are related to EU and UK competition law and international private law, and he also teaches aspects of private law. In recent years his work has focused on the interface between competition law and private law with various projects related to developments in the private enforcement of competition law in the UK and EU. An AHRC-funded project in this area led to the 2014 publication of Competition Law Comparative Private Enforcement and Collective Redress Across the EU (Rodger (ed), Kluwer Law International), and more recently he has co-ordinated a project which resulted in the co-edited publication (with M Sousa Ferro and F Marcos) by OUP in December 2018 of The EU Antitrust Damages Directive, Transposition in the Member States. He is currently working on a range of projects related both to enforcement and substantive issues in EU and UK competition law.

Peter Whelan is a Professor of Law at the University of Leeds, where he is the Director of the Centre for Business Law and Practice. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and is a qualified US Attorney-at-Law. He has published in prestigious law journals (such as Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Cambridge Law Journal, Modern Law Review, and Antitrust Law Journal) and recently completed a monograph on cartel criminalisation, which was published by Oxford University Press. He is currently finalising a monograph for OUP on parental antitrust liability. He has presented his research on six continents and in over 30 countries, including at various competition authorities globally. He has provided oral evidence to the New Zealand Parliament and to the Indian Competition Law Review Committee and has acted as a peer-reviewer for the World Economic Forum. He is a Non-Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network and is the Managing Editor of Oxford Competition Law.

Angus MacCulloch has been an academic since 1996. Initially at the University of Manchester, and at Lancaster University Law School from 2006. His research interests lie primarily in Competition Law, particularly antitrust and enforcement issues, and EU Law, particularly free movement of goods. He retains a wider interest in Regulation, White Collar Crime, and IP law. The majority of his recent Competition Law work focuses on the impact of the introduction of the UK's cartel offence and the wider global move towards the criminalisation of cartel activity. Angus continues to publish a popular Competition Law textbook, Competition Law and Policy in the EU and UK. He is also one of the Editors of the Competition Law Review, founded in 2004, which is an increasingly important home for competition law scholarship. He is a founding member of the Competition Law Scholars Forum and maintains the 'Who's Competing?' blog.