Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Cartel definition

What does Cartel mean? In legal practice, a cartel is coordination between competing undertakings to restrict competition, typically price-fixing, rigged bids (collusive tenders), limiting output or setting quotas, or sharing/dividing markets by allocating customers, suppliers, territories or lines of trade. It may take the form of an agreement, decision or concerted practice, including exchanges of commercially sensitive information that align market behaviour. In UK civil competition law this conduct infringes the Chapter I prohibition in the Competition Act 1998; in Ireland it infringes section 4 of the Competition Act 2002 and, where applicable, Article 101 TFEU. The term is a descriptive label...

Enterprise Act 2002 cartel offence: CMA and SFO co-operation, compulsory powers, LPP safeguards, interviews, investigatory offences, parallel civil proceedings, and leniency

Published by a LexisNexis Corporate Crime expert

Practice notes

Section 188 of the Enterprise Act 2002 (EnA 2002) creates a criminal offence where an individual agrees with one or more others that two or more undertakings will participate in prohibited Cartel arrangements. This spans price fixing, market sharing, restricting production or Supply, and bid rigging. The offence bites on agreements both to create or implement such arrangements, and to cause them to be created or implemented. It is committed irrespective of whether the undertakings put the agreement into effect by the undertakings. There are a number of defences available. See further, The UK criminal cartel offence. Both the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) have the power to investigate individuals suspected of involvement in the criminal cartel offence under EnA 2002, s 188. Under EnA 2002, s 190, proceedings for the criminal cartel offence may only be instituted or brought as follows:

by the Director of the SFO (the Director), or
by or with the consent of the CMA

The relationship between the CMA and the SFO

The CMA will exercise its powers under EnA 2002 to investigate individuals suspected of involvement in a criminal cartel. In...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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