Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Competition law definition

What does Competition law mean? Competition law describes the body of antitrust rules that govern business conduct which restricts competition and the review of mergers and acquisitions. In practice it addresses anti‑competitive agreements (cartels and concerted practices), abuse of dominance, merger control and enforcement. It is a descriptive term rather than a single defined concept, and draws on statute, guidance and case law. United Kingdom (England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland): the principal rules are the chapter i and Chapter II prohibitions in the Competition Act 1998, and the Enterprise Act 2002 regime for merger control and the criminal cartel offence (Part...

UK Competition Law Framework: CMA Powers and Decision‑Making, DMCC 2024 Digital Markets Regime, Merger and Market Investigations, Concurrency with Sector Regulators, Private Enforcement and Post‑Brexit Alignment

Published by a LexisNexis Competition expert

Practice notes

UK Competition law

UK competition law polices anti-competitive behaviour, oversees Merger control and promotes competitive markets. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the principal UK competition Authority. Created by the merger of the OFT and the Competition Commission, it took over enforcing competition law in the UK on 1 April 2014.

The CMA, together with other concurrent competition authorities, has powers to:

enforce prohibitions on anti-competitive agreements and on abuse of a dominant position (see further, Chapter I prohibition and Chapter II prohibition)
bring criminal prosecutions against individuals responsible for implementing hardcore cartels (see further, The UK criminal cartel offence)
seek director disqualification orders against directors involved in competition law breaches (see further, Director disqualification)
investigate UK mergers and block them or require remedies where they would result in a substantial lessening of competition (see further, UK merger control—overview)
open investigations into industries to ensure markets remain competitive and impose remedies where there is an adverse effect on competition (see further, UK market investigations—overview)
take action to address the practices of large...

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Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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