The New UK Competition Act: Reform or Revolution?

Abstract

One of the most notable changes in the forty years since I left Cambridge at the end of my Law Tripos has been the growth in importance of a number of legal subjects previously either totally unknown, known but disregarded, or of interest only to an enthusiastic minority. Competition law certainly fell into one of these categories, not then being taught as a separate subject or even perhaps referred to by any lecturer, except on occasion in the context of “contracts in restraint of trade”. But now the subject has truly come of age and, like some other important commercial law topics which have deservedly earned a place within the regular syllabus of the L.L.M, finds itself referred to constantly not only in academic and professional literature but in the media. Its influence on our daily lives as citizens and consumers means that it is often the subject of headline reports (not always accurate) quite apart from its economic and political significance in the regional, national, European and world context. For example, to mention only one or two current issues, we have had the court case brought by the Office of Fair Trading against the Premier League challenging its collective sale to BSkyB of the television rights to Premier League football matches, and, major changes proposed in the UK defence industries as a result of the proposed acquisition by British Aerospace of the GEC defence businesses.