Brexit-related consultations and discussions
Author
14 August 2016
Competition law prohibits certain agreements between competitors and other forms of conduct (including the exchange of commercially sensitive information) which may prevent, restrict or distort competition. Price-fixing, agreements to limit output and market or customer allocation generally constitute the more serious forms of anti-competitive agreement.
Meetings such as those that might take place between industry practitioners on the implications of Brexit will perform useful and important functions. However, from a competition law perspective, because such meetings bring together representatives from competing businesses, they are also open to increased scrutiny from competition enforcement authorities who may be concerned, for example, that information exchanged between competitors could facilitate or even amount to illegal anti-competitive arrangements.