CC Review of Market Investigation References Guidelines (CC3)
A public consultation on draft revised Guidelines on market investigations was conducted between June and September 2012. The consultation documents (the main Guidelines text and two annexes, published as a single document) and the 12 responses received are attached below.
Guidelines for Market Investigations: Main Text (PDF, 675 Kb)
Guidelines for Market Investigations: Annexes (PDF, 328 Kb)
Responses to the public consultation, June to September 2012
Background
The market investigation regime was established by the Enterprise Act 2002. The Competition Commission (CC) published guidelines for the conduct of market investigations (CC3) in June 2003:
Market Investigation References: Competition Commission Guidelines, June 2003
Since then, the CC has received fourteen market investigations references and published final reports on ten of these. The CC therefore decided in early 2010 that the guidelines should be updated to capture the lessons the CC had absorbed since the introduction of the regime.
An initial letter to stakeholders of 16 March 2010 set out the analytical issues the CC considered might be covered in revised guidelines and asked for initial comments and views. That letter and the responses received are published below.
Consultation letter to stakeholders
Responses to the letter to stakeholders
As a continuation of the dialogue initiated in early 2010, the CC in April 2011 sought comments from stakeholders on those sections of the working draft that had by that time been extensively developed. The revised draft and the comments received on it are below:
Market investigation guidelines revision: draft for comment
Comments on the revised draft of April 2011
